Health Related Quality Of Life Study In Patients With Functional Bowel Disorders

Background:Functional bowel disorders (FBDs) are common disorders that are characterized by various combinations of abdominal pain and/or discomfort, bloating and changes in bowel habits. They are a group of functional gastrointestinal disorders associated with lower gastrointestinal tract symptoms, having gastrointestinal symptoms of chronic and recurrence, without abnormal pathophysiological changes. The classification of FBDs is based on clinical symptoms. In accordance with ROME III criteria it can be divided into irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), functional constipation (FC), functional diarrhea(FD), functional bloating (FB) and unspecific functional bowel disorders(UFBDs).FBDs influences patients'daily activities, health, social behavior and psychology. Health Related Quality Of Life (HRQOL) is applied to evaluate the physical and mental state.SF-36 is one of the publically applied HRQOL scales. SF-8 is a simplified version of SF-36, and is also widespread used abroad for its less items and high response rate.Aim:To evaluate the quality of life of FBDs outpatients and FBDs patients in community, and to evaluate the applying of Chinese version of SF-8 questionnaire on FBDs.Methods:From September,2008 to June,2010,FBDs outpatients were recruited randomly to the study according to Rome III criteria. We also picked up five of the six urban areas where a permanent of a community (residence for at least one year) were interviewed face-to-face by using a questionnaire survey which included basic information, gastrointestinal symptom questionnaire, B. E. S. T questionnaire, SF-8 scale, life events scale(LES), hospital anxiety and depression scale(HADs). All datas were applied SPSS 16.0 software package, p<0.05 for the difference was considered as statistical significance.Results:(1)779 FBDs outpatients were recruited and 1929 subjects in community completed the questionnaire. The differences of age,sex and prevalence of subtypes of FBDs between FBDs outpatients and FBDs patients in community had statistical significance.(2)The differences of depression score, anxiety score, LES score, every dimension (except for body pain), physical health and mental health scores had no statistical significance. Sex, LES, depression, anxiety, the degree of symptoms played an important role in physical health and mental health scores.(3) The quality of life of FBDs outpatients and FBDs patients in community was lower than that of non-FBDs residents in community (p<0.001), every dimension (except for physical function, social function), physical health and mental health scores of FBDs outpatients were lower than that of FBDs patients in community (p<0.05)(4)SF-8 had a close correlation with gastrointestinal related quality of life scoreConclusions:FBDs patients experienced significant impairment in quality of life. The Chinese version of SF-8 Health Survey Scales might be a useful measurement of FBDs patients.