Exploring work productivity loss in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

AIM: We aimed in this study to evaluate the impact of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on patients’ professional life and to determine predictors of severe work productivity loss (WPL). MATERIALS & METHODS: A cross sectional study including patients with a confirmed diagnosis of IBD. Work productivity was evaluated with the work productivity and activity impairment score. RESULTS: Severe absenteeism and WPL were found in respectively 7 (5.1%) and 54 (39.1%) patients. In multivariate analysis, the following features were found to be independently associated with severe WPL: penetrating Crohn’s disease (p: 0.001, OR: 6), anemia (p: 0.031, OR: 3.23), diarrhea (p < 0.001, OR: 11.23) and a secondary level of education (p: 0.003, OR: 1.95). CONCLUSION: Our results show that IBD have a substantial effect on patients’ professional life.