Patients With Ulcerative Colitis Have a High Disease Burden

A new study found that the disease burden of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) is high, especially in patients with bowel urgency (BU). The findings were published in the journal Digestive and Liver Disease.

“Specific studies on the impact of ulcerative colitis (UC) and bowel urgency (BU) on disability and quality of life (QoL) of patients on advanced therapies are missing,” the researchers wrote.

Researchers assessed therapeutic management data in 293 adult patients with UC treated with advanced therapies. They noted that patient reported outcomes on QoL were collected using patient-reported questionnaires.

The results showed that over half of patients (57%) had BU. Moderate-to-severe disability (IBD-Disk score ≥40) was reported in 37.8 % patients. The researchers observed that BU patients had a higher Wexner score and moderate-to-severe disability rate (53.7% vs 16.9 %, P<.0001), as well as lower QoL and work productivity than those in BU remission.

“The burden of moderate to severe UC, especially in patients with BU, is high. These findings highlight that BU control remains an unmet medical need in UC patients and underscore the need for new innovative treatments,” the researchers concluded.