Impact of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL)

Aims - To assess the impact of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) on patient-reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Methods - Two HRQOL instruments were administered by telephone interviews to a sample of 253 IBS French patients recruited from the general population. IBS was diagnosed according to the Manning, Rome I and Rome II criteria. Patients with organic diseases were excluded from the study. A generic instrument, the Short Form 36 (SF-36), and an IBS disease-specific instrument, the IBSQOL, were used. Results - Patients with IBS had statistically significant (P < 0.05) lower scores for all SF-36 QOL domains compared with the general French population. Women (N = 192) reported significantly (P < 0.05) poorer HRQOL on both the SF-36 and the IBSQOL scores than men (N = 61) for all domains except energy on the SF-36 and the sleep on the IBSQOL. HRQOL deteriorated with time since onset of IBS symptoms for some domains such as diet. For both instruments, a positive correlation was observed between low scores and intensity of pain and discomfort. IBS patients with a predominance of diarrhea (N = 72) exhibited significantly greater impairment of HRQOL in the emotional domain than IBS persons with constipation predominance (N = 65) (P < 0.05). Conclusion - IBS has a significant impact on HRQOL of patients. In addition, specific characteristics such as gender, symptom severity and time since onset of symptoms are predictive of more impaired health-related quality of life.