P790 Examining mental health disease burden among Crohn’s Disease (CD) patients in Europe

Abstract

Abstract Background Mental health is an overlooked aspect of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patient care and the most common psychological conditions in patients with IBD are anxiety and depression1. The objective of this study was to examine the possible factors that will impact mental health burden of CD patients in Europe. Methods A multi-centre online medical chart review study of patients with CD was conducted between Jul – Sep 2022 among UK, FR, DE, IT & ES gastroenterologists practicing across hospital and private practices. Physicians were screened for practice duration and patient volume. Charts of patients prescribed with advanced therapy were included in the analysis. Results 206 sampled physicians collectively reported 1178 CD patients. From the reported CD patients, 190 suffered mental health burden (depression or anxiety) and 988 CD patients did not suffered any mental health burden. Among CD patients suffered mental health burden, a higher proportion of CD patients are female vs those who did not suffered any (55% vs 46%). ‘Family history of IBD’ was the co-morbidity more likely to experience in reported CD patients suffered mental health burden vs those who did not (11% vs 7%). When looking at employment status between these two patient groups, reported CD patients suffer mental health burden was less likely to be in full-time employment vs those not suffered mental health burden. A higher proportion of reported CD patients suffered mental health burden were in part-time employment or housewife/househusband. CD patients with mental health burden had greater CRP level than patients without mental health burden (CRP mean: 16 vs 12). This aligns with reported CD patients with mental health burden had frequent surgery times vs without mental health burden (Mean surgery times: 2 vs 1) and had greater steroid usage (% reported patients currently on steroids – 18% vs 13%). Conclusion Comparisons in this study cohort highlight there are other factors could impact CD patients’ mental health burden other than IBD itself. This coincided with low full-time employment rate that attributed to financial stress may increase CD patients’ mental health burden. Also, higher rate of surgery and steroid usage in CD patients experienced mental health burden might suggest they had more severe or complications with their disease that will impact overall mental health. Further investigation using comparator cohort is warranted.