Inflammatory bowel disease, consisting of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, is known to negatively impact an individual's quality of life. Leisure-time activities are an important part of life by creating and strengthening social networks. The aim of this study was to thoroughly evaluate the perceived impact of inflammatory bowel disease on leisure-time activities by quantifying limitations in activities caused by the disease.A structured questionnaire, hospital records and national registers were combined to assess limitations caused by the disease in a patient's leisure-time activities. The final study sample was 561 patients.More than half of the patients (52.8%) reported that IBD had caused limitations in their leisure-time activities. Women perceived that their limitations were greater when compared to the reports by men. One-third of the patients (33.3%) reported reducing and 17.6% abandoning at least one leisure-time activity due to their disease. Most often mentioned activities that were reduced and abandoned were physical activities. The IBDQ32 score had a significant correlation with all of the studied outcomes. Laboratory tests results and the patient's age or the level of income did not correlate with limitations in leisure-time activities.In conclusion, this study showed that patients with inflammatory bowel disease perceived a marked limitation in their leisure-time activities due to their disease.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), mainly Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic diseases causing a lifelong burden and often need sustained treatment throughout a patient's life. Both the incidence and prevalence of IBD has increased in the last decade. Evidence showing the drug costs to IBD patients in Finland is limited. No earlier study has evaluated the drug costs of IBD patients in Finland. Here, we thoroughly assessed these costs.A structured questionnaire, hospital records and national registers were combined to comprehensively assess the actual costs of drug purchases made by IBD patients. The study sample comprised 561 patients.Total annual mean drug costs were 1428€ per patient. CD patients had higher annual costs than UC patients at 2369€ and 902€, respectively. CD patients also had higher costs in the immunosuppressant, corticosteroid, and biologic subgroup analyses. In addition, C-reactive protein, serum albumin and fecal calprotectin levels had a correlation with costs if the patient had needed corticosteroids. In addition, women reported having a worse quality of life (QoL) but had lower total costs.Pharmaceutical drugs are major factors that affect the costs of IBD treatment, and the increased use of biologics has raised these costs.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), consisting of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, can be a lifelong burden generating high costs to an economic system. Data regarding the cost of workplace presenteeism and absenteeism in workers with IBD are limited. Our objective was to assess these costs in employed adults.A structured questionnaire, hospital records and national registers were combined to assess the economic costs involved with workplace presenteeism and absenteeism in employed patients. Our final sample comprised 320 IBD patients. The costs were calculated as productivity-loss costs by using a Human Capital Approach.Due to IBD, the mean annual economic costs of workplace presenteeism were €643.90/patient, and mean annual absenteeism costs were €740.90/patient. Women had higher costs (€955/patient/year) from absenteeism compared to men (€531/patient/year) especially when working blue-collar jobs. These findings were also evident in presenteeism. CD and UC patients had similar total costs due to presenteeism and absenteeism. The use of biologics did not have a major impact on these costs.IBD patients had moderate economic costs from workplace presenteeism and absenteeism. Interestingly, women, working blue-collar jobs, had higher costs than men.
'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(144 450 300)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(216 450 300)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(288 450 300)'/%3e%3c/svg%3e)
