The effect of treatment with biological agents on the quality of life in patients with inflamatuar intestinal disease

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), determine the presence of anxiety and depression, their interactions with each other, their relationship with demographic factors; to investigate whether there are differences between ulcerative colitis and crohn's disease in this context and to analyse the possible effects of biological drug treatment on life quality. Materials and Methods: The demographic data, treatment schedule, activity scores, pediatric Crohn's disease activity index (PCDAI) and pediatric ulcerative colitis activity index (PUKAI) of IBD patients who were referred to the Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology of Istanbul Medical Faculty of Istanbul University were reviewed. Influence of the biologic agents use on quality of life was evaluated in this group of patients. Quality of life of IBD patients receiving biologic agents was compared to patients not receiving biological agents. Results: Fiftyone patients were included in the study, 25 were female (49%) and the mean age was 15.2 ±3 years. The mean age at diagnosis was 11,4±4,6 years. Twenty-four (47.1%) patients had ulcerative colitis and 27 (52.9%) had Crohn's disease. The quality of life was evaluated using IBDQ-32 questionnaire. When the subgroups and total score were compared according to gender and diagnosis, no statistically significant difference was found. No statistically significant difference could be demonstrated between intestinal symptoms, systemic findings and total score in patients receiving and not receiving biological agents. However, although no statistically significant, an apparent difference was noticed between the emotional function scores in two groups. Social function score was found to be significantly lower in biological agent users. The mean activity score was sicgnificantly decreased after 3 monthos in children receiving biological agents compared to the last three monthos before biological agent treatment. Conclusions: As a result, no statistically significant difference was found between health-related quality of life scores according to gender, age, diagnosis and disease duration. Eighty three% of those receiving biologic agents were in remission. There was a statistically significant difference between activity scores before and after receiving biologic agents. A statistically significant negative association existsed between activity score and quality of life. However, it was found that the total score of the health-related quality of life questionnaire was not affected in patients receiving biological agents, while social and emotional domains were negatively affected.