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Children diagnosed with IBD still find success as adults
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Children and adolescents diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease are just as likely to gain employment and get married in adulthood as their peers without IBD, and are even more likely to earn higher annual incomes and get a college education, according to a new study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
“The anxiety associated with a new diagnosis of IBD is significant to both children and their parents,” Wael El-Matary, MD, MSc, FRCPCH, FRCPC, from the section of pediatric gastroenterology, departments of pediatrics, at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, said in a press release. “We hope our findings reassure families dealing with this diagnosis. Knowing that long-term educational levels attained, occupation and marital status are not worse compared to those without IBD will significantly help in alleviating a great part of this anxiety.”
El-Matary and colleagues performed a cross-sectional study of 112 patients diagnosed with IBD at the Pediatric Gastroenterology Clinic at Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg when they were children or adolescents from 1978 through 2007. The mean age at diagnosis was 12.9 years, 58 were boys, 76 had Crohn’s disease and the mean follow-up duration was 14.3 years.
Researchers surveyed the patients on their education, employment and marital status, and randomly matched each patient by age and sex with five healthy controls (n = 565) identified in the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey, using logistic regression models to compare them.
Researchers found that the patients with IBD were more likely to earn a higher annual income than controls (OR = 1.72; 95% CI, 1.13-2.6) and were also more likely to earn a college degree (OR = 2.73; 95% CI, 1.48-5.04). Moreover, patients with IBD were just as likely to be employed and get married, and only 12.5% of patients believed their IBD negatively affected their marriage.
“IBD is not an easy diagnosis. We recognize that it may take several years for patients to find a treatment regimen that works best for their disease, hence why we decided to revisit patients many years after their initial diagnosis when they, hopefully, are following a stable and effective treatment plan,” El-Matary said in the press release. “What we found was hope at the end of the tunnel.” – by Adam Leitenberger
Disclosures: Janssen provided an unrestricted grant to support this study. The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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