Instruments for quality of life assessment in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

BACKGROUND: Health-Related Quality of Life is an important measure of illness perception on the part of the patient. In this review, the current status of the Health-Related Quality of Life assessment in studies concerning inflammatory bowel disease is examined and the various instruments proposed for this purpose are considered and compared.
METHODS: A search was made of the Medline database, for relevant articles since 1980. Standard criteria were used for including studies for further evaluation.
RESULTS: All studies on measuring Health-Related Quality of Life in inflammatory bowel disease patients conclude that the instruments used were valid and reliable assessment tools. Valid instruments that have been proposed for the assessment of health-related quality of life are: the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire, the Rating Form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patient Concerns, an Inflammatory Bowel Disease-specific questionnaire developed in Cleveland, the Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease Health Status Scales and a Disease-specific questionnaire developed in the University of Padova.
CONCLUSIONS: Assessing health-related quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease patients is an ever-expanding practice, especially in clinical trials. The instruments that, currently, satisfy most demands for simplicity and validity are the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire, reflecting primarily disease activity, and the Rating Form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patient Concerns which corresponds more to the psychological and social aspects of inflammatory bowel disease from the patient's point of view.