Quality of life of patients with inflammatory bowel disease using immunobiological therapy

ABSTRACT Objectives: To assess the quality of life of patients diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) using immunobiological therapy and to relate the general and domain scores of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ) to the immunobiological drug in use and the clinical and sociodemographic variables. Methods: This was a descriptive observational cross-sectional study, conducted from June to September 2018 in a tertiary hospital in Sergipe, which included 47 patients with a diagnosis of Crohn's disease. The IBDQ questionnaire was applied together with a sociodemographic questionnaire, and the clinical data and the history of the disease were analyzed. Results: Female, mixed-race, married patients from the countryside of the state of Sergipe, Brazil, who had never undergone any intestinal surgery, represented most of the study participants. 24 patients were on infliximab and 23 were on adalimumab. Variables such as gender, type of immunobiological drug and duration of its use, and association of therapy with other medications were shown to statistically significantly influence the report quality of life (p-value < 0.05). Conclusion: Further studies with larger samples are necessary to allow a more accurate delimitation of the impact of clinical and sociodemographic variables on the quality of life of patients with inflammatory bowel disease