Table 2.
Clinical characteristics among the IBD groups.
| Active IBD [n = 65] | Inactive IBD-GI with gut symptoms [n = 86] | Inactive IBD without gut symptoms [n = 81] | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medications, n [%] | ||||
| Mesalazine | 31 [48]a | 33 [38]b | 40 [49]a | 0.002 |
| Thiopurines | 21 [32] | 35 [41] | 36 [44] | 0.149 |
| Biologics | 22 [34] | 35 [41] | 30 [37] | 0.632 |
| Steroids | 13 [20]a | 0 [0]b | 3 [4]b | <0.001 |
| Years since diagnosis, mean [SD] | 10 [8] | 10 [10] | 13 [10] | 0.076 |
| IBD-control score, mean [SD] | 52 [27]a | 79 [23]b | 106 [17]c | <0.001 |
| Crohn’s disease, n [%] | 25 [38] | 48 [56] | 44 [54] | 0.074 |
| Harvey‐Bradshaw Index [CD only], mean [SD] | 7 [3]a | 4 [2]b | 1 [1]c | <0.001 |
| Crohn’s disease location, n [%] | 0.474 | |||
| Ileal | 7 [11] | 16 [19] | 8 [10] | |
| Colonic | 6 [9] | 12 [14] | 16 [20] | |
| Ileocolonic | 12 [18] | 20 [23] | 21 [26] | |
| Perianal disease | 3 [5]a | 9 [11]a | 10 [12]a | 0.039 |
| Crohn’s disease behaviour, n [%] | 0.512 | |||
| Non-stricturing, non-penetrating | 14 [22] | 25 [29] | 25 [31] | |
| Stricturing | 10 [15] | 15 [17] | 12 [15] | |
| Penetrating | 1 [2] | 6 [7] | 8 [10] | |
| Surgery [CD only], n [%] | 12 [18] | 17 [20] | 23 [28] | 0.273 |
| Ulcerative colitis, n [%] | 40 [62] | 38 [44] | 37 [46] | 0.074 |
| Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index [UC only], mean [SD] | 8 [2]a | 3 [2] b | 1 [1] c | <0.001 |
| Ulcerative colitis extent, n [%] | 0.083 | |||
| Proctitis | 6 [11] | 12 [14] | 5 [6] | |
| Distal | 23 [42] | 14 [16] | 14 [17] | |
| Extensive | 11 [20] | 12 [14] | 17 [21] | |
| Ulcerative colitis severity, n [%] | <0.001 | |||
| Remission | 5 [9] | 7 [8] | 36 [44] | |
| Mild | 16 [29] | 3 [3] | 0 [0] | |
| Moderate | 17 [31] | 2 [2] | 0 [0] | |
| Severe | 1 [2] | 0 [0] | 0 [0] | |
| Rome III criteria fulfilled, n [%] | ||||
| IBS-D | - | 22 [26] | - | |
| IBS-M | - | 4 [5] | - | |
| IBS-U | - | 4 [5] | - | |
| Functional bloating | - | 49 [57] | - | |
| Functional diarrhoea | - | 7 [8] | - |
p-values in bold are statistically significant (p < 0.05).
Continuous variables were compared across groups using one-way ANOVA and categorical variables were compared using Chi-squared test.
IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; GI, gastrointestinal; SD, standard deviation; CD, Crohn’s disease; UC, ulcerative colitis.
Groups with differing superscript letters are significantly different at the 0.05 level following pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni post hoc correction.