Table 2.
Numerical ranking of disease-related worries and concerns among IBD patients followed for 1-Year (items ranked as the five most important are in boldface).
| RFIPC item | UC | CD | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V1 (n = 92) | V3 (n = 86) | V1 (n = 48) | V3 (n = 47) | |
| Financial difficulties | 18 | 18 | 17 | 23 |
| Pain and suffering | 16 | 13 | 12 | 12 |
| Ability to achieve full potential | 10 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Loss of bowel control | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Developing cancer | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Dying early | 12 | 10 | 7 | 7 |
| Being a burden on others | 6 | 5 | 9 | 3 |
| Attractiveness | 21 | 16 | 18 | 17 |
| Feeling alone | 22 | 19 | 23 | 22 |
| Feeling out of control | 11 | 9 | 10 | 9 |
| Feeling dirty and smelly | 19 | 21 | 16 | 16 |
| Ability to perform sexually | 20 | 22 | 21 | 19 |
| Ability to have children | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Passing the disease on to your children | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Being treated as different | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Having surgery | 8 | 12 | 6 | 11 |
| Having an ostomy bag | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Producing unpleasant odors | 13 | 20 | 14 | 14 |
| Energy level | 4 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| Feelings about my body | 15 | 15 | 19 | 15 |
| Intimacy | 23 | 23 | 22 | 21 |
| Loss of sexual drive | 17 | 17 | 15 | 18 |
| Having access to quality medical care | 14 | 14 | 20 | 20 |
| Uncertain nature of my disease | 7 | 8 | 11 | 13 |
| Effects of medication | 9 | 11 | 13 | 10 |
Abbreviations IBD: inflammatory bowel disease, V1: visit 1 (baseline), V3: visit 3 (1-Year), RFIPC: rating form of inflammatory bowel disease patient concerns, UC: ulcerative colitis, and CD: Crohn's disease.