Investigation and analysis on symptom burden in inflammatory bowel disease patients

Objective To explore the symptom burden of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients and to compare the differences of symptom burden of IBD patients among different general information, disease types, disease state. Methods From April to May 2017, IBD patients in IBD information supporting platform patients of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University were selected as subjects by convenience sampling. The questionnaire survey was carried out with the self-designed general information questionnaire and the adapted Memorial symptom assessment scale (MSAS) sent out by WeChat. The rank test was used to analyze the status of disease burden among patients with different characteristics. Results A total of 265 valid questionnaires were collected totally. There were 32.0 (26.0, 37.0) symptoms which showed one week self-reported by 264 patients. Anenergia was with one of the highest rates of symptom. Anxiety was with one of the highest rates of phychological symptom. The score of symptom burden was 60.0 (24.7, 102.4) . Anenergia and intestinal problems were common in patients with ulcerative colitis. Fatigue, malnutrition and psychological problems were common in patients with Crohn's disease. There were significant differences in scores of total symptom burden among IBD patients with a different situation in disease activities, duration courses, absenteeism or asking for leave due to disease, suspension of schooling or resignation because of disease, whether living with family or not (P<0.05) . Conclusions IBD brings serious physical and mental symptom burden to patients. Nurses should strengthen comprehensive assessment and management of symptoms especially in anenergia and phychological symptoms. And then, nurses should take effective nursing intervention according to symptom with different characteristics so as to ease the symptom burden for patients and improve life quality. Key words: Questionnaires; Inflammatory bowel diseases; Symptom burden