P280 Quality of Life in Military Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract Background Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), represented by Crohn's disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), are chronic conditions that can impair quality of life (HRQOL). Active military personnel are particularly at risk, given the strain of their work and military missions. The aim of our study was to evaluate the HRQOL of active military patients with IBD and to search for factors related to its alteration. Methods This was a prospective cross-sectional study, over a period of 5 months [February 2022 - June 2022], including male military patients that were still serving. The HRQOL of these patients was assessed by the IBD-Disk, which is a visual scale that consists of 10 items (Abdominal pain, diarrhea, social behavior, education and work, sleep, energy, emotions, body image, sexual activity, joint pain). It is validated for the assessment of HRQOL in IBD patients. Each dimension is scored from 0 to 10, with a total score of 0 to 100. The higher the score, the more impaired the HRQOL. The overall IBD-Disk score was considered impaired if it was higher than 40. Results We included 30 patients. The most represented age range was from 31 to 40 years. Ten patients were smokers. Twenty-four patients had CD and 6 had UC. The majority of CD was isolated ileal (n=16) with an upper gastrointestinal tract involvement in one patient and anoperineal manifestations in 5 patients. UC was distal in 3 patients and extensive in the other 3. Nine patients had extra-intestinal involvement, principally rheumatological (n=8). The mean overall IBD-Disk score was 21.6 [6 - 66]. We noted that CD was associated with the alteration of the dimensions related to urgent stools (p=0.001), social life (0.002) and sleep (p=0.004). The presence of anoperineal lesions during CD was associated with impairment of the social (p=0.002) and energy (p=0.006) dimensions. The presence of extra-intestinal manifestations was associated with elevated social dimension score (p=0.002). Azathioprine treatment was associated with impaired sleep dimension (p=0.048). Patients with a disease that had been evolving for more than 5 years had an alteration in the dimension related to urgent stools (diarrhea) (p=0.036), energy (p=0.048) as well as the dimension of sexual life (p=0.042). History of hospitalization for IBD was associated with impaired body image (p=0.030). History of surgical resection was associated with impaired energy (p=0.029), sexuality (p=0.015) and overall quality of life (p=0.02). Conclusion In our active military patients, HRQOL was not impaired overall, but several factors, related to severe forms, were associated with lower HRQOL.