Health-related quality of life of irritable bowel syndrome patients in different cultural settings

Abstract

BackgroundPersons with Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are seriously affected in their everyday life. The effect across different cultural settings of IBS on their quality of life has been little studied. The aim was to compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of individuals suffering from IBS in two different cultural settings; Crete, Greece and Linköping, Sweden.MethodsThis study is a sex and age-matched case-control study, with n = 30 Cretan IBS cases and n = 90 Swedish IBS cases and a Swedish control group (n = 300) randomly selected from the general population. Health-related quality of life, measured by SF-36 and demographics, life style indicators and co-morbidity, was measured.ResultsCretan IBS cases reported lower HRQOL on most dimensions of SF-36 in comparison to the Swedish IBS cases. Significant differences were found for the dimensions mental health (p < 0.0001) and general health (p = 0.05) even after adjustments for educational level and co-morbidity. Women from Crete with IBS scored especially low on the dimensions general health (p = 0.009) and mental health (p < 0.0001) in comparison with Swedish women with IBS. The IBS cases, from both sites, reported significantly lower scores on all HRQOL dimensions in comparison with the Swedish control group.ConclusionThe results from this study tentatively support that the claim that similar individuals having the same disease, e.g. IBS, but living in different cultural environments could perceive their disease differently and that the disease might affect their everyday life and quality of life in a different way. The Cretan population, and especially women, are more seriously affected mentally by their disease than Swedish IBS cases. Coping with IBS in everyday life might be more problematic in the Cretan environment than in the Swedish setting.

Lifestyle and psychological factors related to irritable bowel syndrome in nursing and medical school students

“…Sakata et al [27] reported that the factors affecting IBS differed greatly among individuals. Furthermore, in a study about quality of life (QOL) [28], it was shown that how people accept situations is different between races. For example, Swedish people considered disease more seriously than Greeks did, and it affected their mental health.…”

The Effect of Tegaserod on Symptoms and Quality of Life in Korean Women with Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation

“…However most clinical studies usually assessed symptomatic improvement or used only a summary score even if QOL was assessed. The pattern of bowel symptoms related to IBS seems to be similar across the country,29 but quality of life perceived by IBS patients varied depending on different cultural environments and countries rather than racial differences 30,31…”

Fecal Calprotectin and serum chromogranin A as potential biomarkers of irritable bowel syndrome symptom severity

“…Physical HRQoL refers to physical limitations in everyday functioning which are a result of bodily pain or low general health, while mental HRQoL reflects functional limitations resulting from negative mood, or poor mental and social functioning [41]. Compared to healthy controls, IBS patients have significantly lower quality of life scores [42], as do IBD patients [43]. When comparing the two patient groups, they show similarly reduced quality of life [43].…”