Proposal and exploration of a novel score to quantify patient-perceived burden of inflammatory bowel disease under...

The burden of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is often reported on from a system or cost viewpoint. We created and explored a novel patient-perceived burden of disease (PPBoD) score in a large Australasian cohort.

To create and explore a novel patient-perceived burden of disease (PPBoD) score in a large Australasian cohort, and correlate PPBoD scores with demographics, disease and treatment factors.

The Crohn Colitis Care Registry was interrogated in October 2023. Data from adults with IBD with an outpatient care encounter in the last 14 months among 17 centres were included. A novel PPBoD score was designed for ulcerative colitis (UC), Crohn disease (CD) and IBD-unclassified (IBDU). Correlations between PPBoD scores and demographics, disease and treatment factors were examined.

Of those with adequate data, 46.7% (2653/5685) had no PPBoD, 34.6% (1969/5685) had mild, 11.3% (641/5685) had moderate and 7.4% (422/5685) had significant PPBoD. New Zealanders were more likely to have higher PPBoD compared to Australians (P = 0.047). Greater PPBoD was seen in patients with CD and IBDU compared to patients with UC (P < 0.001) and females were more likely to have significant PPBoD (8.7%) than males (6.1%) (P < 0.001). People with no or mild PPBoD were more likely to be on advanced therapies (55.7% and 59.5% respectively) than those with significant PPBoD (46.3%) (P < 0.001). The proportion of people on advanced therapies in Australia was higher than in New Zealand (61.2% vs 38.5% respectively, P < 0.001). Steroid usage was significantly higher in people with greater PPBoD (significant BoD 7.1% vs no BoD 1.1%; P < 0.001).

Most of this real-world care cohort had no or mild PPBoD. Data suggest that higher PPBoD levels may be resolved by appropriate therapeutic escalations.