The need for interdisciplinary quality of life studies for patients with Crohn's Disease - a systematic review

Abstract

Crohn’s disease is a chronic, lifelong condition with increasing rates of morbidity. It can have a significant impact on one's physical, emotional, economical and social functioning. Both medical as well as social fields of studies have adapted the construct of Quality of Life to assess the well being of patients. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of scientists research concerning Quality of Life in Crohn's disease patients from an interdisciplinary, medical and psychological perspective exceeding beyond a single definition or a paradigm. EBSCOhost Research Databases platform was used to conduct the preliminary search. Then, a further qualitative analysis of texts was conducted. The results showed a declining interest in Quality of Life of Crohn’s disease patients in the studied 10-year scope on average by 11.49% from year to year. Also an underrepresentation of studies of the nature of psychological variables in relation to studies of the medical description was found. An information gap in scientific cognition related to the interdisciplinary approach regarding the studied topic was recognised. There is a necessity to broaden the horizons of the conducted research to include further issues at several levels of inference. This approach would by all means be needed not only in the dimension of scientific considerations, but also or above all in the practical dimension.