Long-term Functional Outcome of Children With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are group of immune system disorders characterized by a chronic course with remission and relapses. Canada is one of the countries with the highest prevalence and incidence rates of IBD with 25% of patients present in children and adolescents.

As with any chronic illness, IBD diagnosed early in life has a significant impact on the physical, emotional and social development of those affected. Consequently, it is logical to speculate that patients with IBD may not do as well in education levels or employment status attained compared to their peers without IBD. If this were the case, then interventions could begin in childhood to better prepare patients with IBD for the challenges of living with a chronic disease. Alternatively, if it is shown that they reach comparable social or employment milestones as adults compared to unaffected peers then this would be enormously reassuring to children and their parents.

Properly designed studies to help in defining more appropriate interventions to these patients are needed.

The proposed study includes circulating a survey to evaluate the functioning level of adult patients with IBD who were diagnosed during their childhood. The participants will be asked a series of questions regarding their highest level of educational achievement, the nature of their current employment, and their current marital status. The question format will parallel that of the Canadian Community Health Survey from which data from an age matched healthy adult Manitobans will be extracted and used as another control group. Responses will be analysed for any possible differences between these groups.