Biopsychosocial predictors of fatigue in quiescent and mild ulcerative colitis - an explorative study

In 37 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) and 40 patients without IPAA fatigue was measured using the Short Form Giessen Subjective Complaints List GBB 24. Age, sex, disease activity (measured by the Colitis Activity Index CAI or the Pouch Disease Activity Index PDAI) and depressiveness (measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale or the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale), active medical comorbidities and therapy by corticosteroids were tested for their predictive capacity regarding fatigue. One third of the patients indicated fatigue scores above the 95th percentile of the score of the general German population. The amount of fatigue in patients without IPAA was best predicted by the degree of depressiveness (corrected R(2)=0.30, beta=0.57, p<0.001). The amount of fatigue in patients with IPAA was best predicted by the PDAI-score (corrected R(2)=0.20, beta=1.35, p=0.03).