The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Is Associated with Reduced Health-Related Quality of Life
Table 2
Comparison of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the study population.
IBD ()
CD ()
UC ()
Gender
Female (%)
116 (49.4)
72 (55.8)
44 (41.5)
0.029
Age
Median (range) in years
39 (18–79)
37 (18–75)
41 (20–79)
0.034
Education level
>12 years (%)
112 (47.7)
59 (45.7)
53 (50.0)
0.515
Work status
Working/student (%)
156 (66.4)
80 (62.0)
76 (71.7)
0.118
Marital status
Married or cohabitant (%)
162 (68.9)
84 (65.1)
78 (73.6)
0.163
CAM use
104 (44.3)
49 (38.0)
55 (51.9)
0.033
Current smoking
Yes (%)
47 (20.0)
39 (30.2)
8 (7.5)
<0.001
Disease duration
Median (range) in years
8 (0.1–45)
10 (0.1–38)
6 (0.2–45)
<0.001
Disease localization
Proctitis (%)
19 (19.2)
Left sided (%)
20 (20.2)
Extensive (%)
60 (60.6)
L1 terminal ileum (%)
22 (18.0)
L2 colon (%)
30 (24.2)
L3 ileocolon (%)
60 (49.2)
L4 upper GI (%)
10 (8.2)
Disease behavior
Inflammatory (%)
36 (40.4)
Stricturing (%)
27 (30.3)
Penetrating (%)
26 (29.2)
Perianal disease (%)
22 (24.7)
Active (%)
142 (60.4)
72 (69.0)
70 (56.0)
IBD: inflammatory bowel disease; UC: ulcerative colitis; CD: Crohn’s disease; CAM: complementary and alternative medicine. reported active disease: simple clinical colitis activity index ≥3 in UC or Harvey-Bradshaw activity index >4 in CD. Continuous variables were estimated by the Mann–Whitney U test, and chi-squared test was used to compare proportions. value estimated between CD and UC.
