Objective

To assess the quality of life of Crohn's disease patients treated at the clinic of the University Hospital from Piauí.

Methods

Exploratory and cross-sectional study in the University Hospital of Piauí - Brazil, from July to December 2015, with a sample of 52 Crohn's disease patients. A form was applied to characterize the sociodemographic and clinical profile, and the instrument "Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire" was used to assess the quality of life.

Results

Most participants were females, adults, self-declared brown-skinned, married, with family income of two minimum wages, with high school education and non-smokers and alcohol drinkers. Diagnostic time was longer than five years, and patients are partly in remission of the disease. Few patients had marked weight loss, diarrhea and abdominal pain in the last three months. Patients had been hospitalized due to Crohn's disease, a quarter of them had undergone surgical resection of the bowel and had had complications such as fistulas, more often. As drug treatment, association of immunomodulators and aziotioprina was used. Most had performed laboratory tests for control, followed by colonoscopy and they had never abandoned treatment. Patients presented regular quality of life and the response "never" was the most scored in the instrument. Quality of life was regular in the domains of systemic symptoms, emotional and social aspects, and in the intestinal symptoms, it was satisfactory with an average 56.15.

Conclusion

Patients with Crohn's disease have a regular quality of life.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in English | Spanish | Portuguese     · English ( pdf ) | Spanish ( pdf ) | Portuguese ( pdf )