Patient preferences for inflammatory bowel disease treatment objectives.

Background: There is currently little evidence about what treatment objectives most interest patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Aims: To determine patient preferences regarding IBD treatment objectives, specially the attributes they value most and the symptoms to be controlled as a priority.

Methods: Prospective, observational, anonymous study conducted in 117 outpatients with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.

Results: The most important treatment objectives from the patients' perspective were: improving quality of life (40.2% of patients), and completely resolving symptoms (33.3%). Only 12.8% of patients indicated having a completely normal colonoscopy as a preferred objective. The symptoms the patients considered to be most important when prioritizing their control were: abdominal pain (23.1% of patients), and bowel movement urgency (17.1%). The preferred treatment objectives were similar for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis patients.

Conclusions: Improving quality of life and completely controlling symptoms are the priority treatment objectives for IBD patients, with abdominal pain being the most important symptom. Conversely, therapeutic objective target goals proposed by physicians, such as healing the mucosal lesions, are not a priority for most patients. This indicates that there are discrepancies between patient and physician expectations, which should be taken into account if a patient-centered care model is to be implemented.