The following is a summary of “Do patients with inflammatory bowel disease really know what other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases they are diagnosed with?” published in the July 2024 issue of Gastroenterology by Francisco et al.

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) frequently co-occur with other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs).

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess patients with IBD awareness of co-occurring IMIDs and factors impacting the accuracy of self-reported diagnoses.

They conducted a study at a tertiary hospital where patients with IBD completed a questionnaire reporting (self-reported diagnosis) 54 IMIDs. The self-reported diagnoses of IMID were compared with medical records (reference diagnosis) for confirmation. The agreement between self-reported and medically confirmed IMID diagnoses was assessed. Logistic regression models analyzed the relationship between agreement and various predictors.

The results showed 1,620 patients; 39% had at least one IMID, and 11% had two or more. The overall agreement between self-reported and medical record diagnoses was kappa ((k): 0.61). Agreement for rheumatic IMIDs was moderate (k: 0.58), while substantial agreement was found for cutaneous (k: 0.66), endocrine (k: 0.74), and ocular (k: 0.73) IMIDs. Female gender correlated with higher concordance among patients with IMID, whereas lower educational levels and concurrent or subsequent diagnoses compared to IBD were associated with lower concordance.

Investigators found that patients with IBD had limited knowledge of co-existing IMIDs, particularly patients affecting the joints (rheumatic).

Source: academic.oup.com/ecco-jcc/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjae109/7709946