Kontakt 2009, 11(2):433-443 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2009.066

Determinants of the quality of life in patients with non-specific bowel inflammationBiomedicine

Elena Gurková^1,*, Marcela Lilgová²

¹ Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Jesseniova lekárska fakulta v Martine, Ústav ošetrovateľstva, SR

² Ambulancia liečebnej rehabilitácie, Poliklinika Závodov ťažkého strojárstva, Martin, SR

The purpose of the work was to identify basic determinants affecting the quality of life of patients with non-specific bowel inflammation. For the measurement of the quality of life, a modified version of the questionnaire for inflammatory intestinal diseases Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ) was employed. The sample group included 65 patients with non-specific bowel inflammation (Crohn disease or ulcerous colitis). For the summarized assessment of answers of respondents, descriptive statistics was used (arithmetic mean value, standard error). Differences in the quality of life based on variables selected (type of the disease, duration of the disease, rate of recurrence of the disease, age, gender, martial status) multivariate analysis of variance - MANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and unpaired Student t-test at a significance level (p) ≤ 0.05 were used. The IBDQ reliability was evaluated in terms of the intrinsic consistence (Cronbach alpha coefficient).
The Cronbach alpha coefficient of the modified IBDQ version was of 0.95 which indicates a good intrinsic consistence of the translated version. We simultaneously supported the fact that between IBDQ subscales, there are mutual relationships (Pearson coefficient values were of 0.66 to 0.928). In the respondents, we found no significant differences in the quality of life in terms of the duration of the disease and martial status. A linear relationship was determined between the duration of the last recurrence and quality of life of patients. In terms of the gender, we observed a more negative evaluation of the quality of life in women in terms of intestinal and systemic regions.
The quality of life of patients with non-specific bowel inflammation is considerably affected by the duration of the last recurrence. The women with the disease perceive physical aspects of the quality of life more negatively compared with men. Between particular areas of the quality of life, there are statistically significant relationships and particular dimensions of the quality of life affect each other. The modified Slovak version of the IBDQ is a reliable tool for the measurement of the quality of life of patients with non-specific bowel inflammation.

Keywords: quality of life; Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire; Crohn disease; ulcerous colitis

Received: June 19, 2009; Accepted: September 28, 2009; Published: December 18, 2009  Show citation