P814 Incidence and significance of fatigue in patients with IBD

Abstract Background Fatigue is common in IBD patients, even in clinical remission and adversely affects the quality of life. For this reason, it has been suggested to use fatigue questionnaires as PROS (patient reported outcomes). We aimed to study the degree of fatigue in IBD patients and identify factors that are positively or negatively related to its presence. Methods Patients with IBD (men: 51.6%, Crohn’s Disease: 65.2%, age: 36.7 years median, 18.1–72 yrs range), with a regular f-up in our Department completed the Fatigue Severity Scale, IBD Fatigue self assessment 1 & 2, short IBDQ and Short Health Scale upon consensus. Two groups of patients were studied: Group A, patients attended the IBD outpatient clinic (121 patients / 144 questionnaires) and Group B, patients attended the infusion centre for biological therapy (55 patients / 414 questionnaires). The SPSS-23 statistical programme was used to identify correlations between fatigue and various clinical-laboratory parameters of patients. Results Problematic fatigue (FSS> 36) was reported by 46.5% of patients. No difference was observed between Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis or between the two groups of patients. There were statistically significant correlations between fatigue and disease activity (R = 0.428, P <0.001) and HGB (R = −0.177, p < 0.001). Fatigue was significantly associated with quality of life based on the short IBDQ and SHS questionnaires (R = −0.655, p < 0.001 and R = 0.485, p < 0.001 respectively). There was also a statistically significant relationship of both fatigue and quality of life with parameters such as female sex (p < 0.01), arthralgia (p < 0.05) and biological agent treatment (p < 0.05), while quality of life was statistically significant related with the disease type (P =0.01) too. Sequential measurements showed that the quality of life and fatigue rate were consistently maintained in patients with remission under biological therapy. Conclusion In the group of IBD patients we studied, a significant correlation with various clinical characteristics was observed. The presence of fatigue is a factor associated with poor quality of life for patients.