Worries and Concerns among Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients Followed Prospectively over One Year
Table 2
Numerical ranking of disease-related worries and concerns among IBD patients followed for 1-Year (items ranked as the five most important are in boldface).
RFIPC item
UC
CD
V1 (n = 92)
V3 (n = 86)
V1 (n = 48)
V3 (n = 47)
Financial difficulties
18
18
17
23
Pain and suffering
16
13
12
12
Ability to achieve full potential
10
7
8
8
Loss of bowel control
5
3
2
1
Developing cancer
2
2
4
6
Dying early
12
10
7
7
Being a burden on others
6
5
9
3
Attractiveness
21
16
18
17
Feeling alone
22
19
23
22
Feeling out of control
11
9
10
9
Feeling dirty and smelly
19
21
16
16
Ability to perform sexually
20
22
21
19
Ability to have children
25
25
25
25
Passing the disease on to your children
3
4
5
4
Being treated as different
24
24
24
24
Having surgery
8
12
6
11
Having an ostomy bag
1
1
1
5
Producing unpleasant odors
13
20
14
14
Energy level
4
6
3
2
Feelings about my body
15
15
19
15
Intimacy
23
23
22
21
Loss of sexual drive
17
17
15
18
Having access to quality medical care
14
14
20
20
Uncertain nature of my disease
7
8
11
13
Effects of medication
9
11
13
10
Abbreviations IBD: inflammatory bowel disease, V1: visit 1 (baseline), V3: visit 3 (1-Year), RFIPC: rating form of inflammatory bowel disease patient concerns, UC: ulcerative colitis, and CD: Crohn’s disease.
