The Relationship between Gender, Severity of Disease, Treatment Type, and Employment Outcome in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Israel.

Timna Naftali,Efrat Broide,Adi Eindor-Abarbanel,Tomer Ziv-Baran,Fred Konikoff,Nahum Ruhimovich,Fabiana Sklerovsky-Benjaminov,Yael Milgrom,Shay Matalon,Ariella Bar-Gil Shitrit,Haim Shirin

doi:10.1155/2018/5090849

Abstract

Introduction Since individuals with IBD typically experience symptoms during their prime years of employment, it raises the question about IBD impact on employment status. Most studies concentrated on absenteeism from work with varying results in different populations. However, absenteeism reflects only one dimension of the ability to work and does not expose the problem of inability to hold a full-time job. Aims To evaluate the influence of IBD on unemployment and working hours in Israel. Secondary aims were to investigate the correlation between working hours and the type of medical treatment and the impact of severity of disease. Patients and Methods Demographic data, employment status, number of weekly working hours, and disease parameters. The data was compared to that of the general Israeli population extracted from the website of the Central Bureau of Statistics. Results 242 IBD patients were interviewed. Patients median age was 37.04(IQR 30.23-44.68) years and 88 (36.4%) were men and 154 (63.6%) women. Diagnosis of CD was established in 167 (69%) patients and UC in 65 (26.9%). There was no significant reduction in employment rates or working hours among the IBD patients comparing to the general population. Immunosuppressive or biologic treatment did not influence employment status. The unemployed patients had higher disease severity (median 7.33, IQR 5-10.66) compared to employed patients (median 6, IQR 3.66-7.66; p=0.003). Conclusions Although IBD patients in Israel do not have higher unemployment, those with severe disease have lower proportion of employment.

Highlights

Since individuals with Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) typically experience symptoms during their prime years of employment, it raises the question about IBD impact on employment status
There was no significant reduction in employment rates or working hours among the IBD patients comparing to the general population
A total of 167 (69%) patients were diagnosed with Crohn's disease (CD), 65(26.9%) with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 10 (4.1%) with IBD-U and 50 (20%) with perianal disease

Summary

Introduction

Since individuals with IBD typically experience symptoms during their prime years of employment, it raises the question about IBD impact on employment status. There was no significant reduction in employment rates or working hours among the IBD patients comparing to the general population. IBD patients in Israel do not have higher unemployment, those with severe disease have lower proportion of employment. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are characterized by episodic and continuous symptoms including diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, and fatigue among many other complaints These symptoms can interfere with the ability to perform daily routine activities [1]. Some patients need routine intravenous treatments such as biologics [6, 7] and iron supplementation [8, 9] These are time-consuming and can challenge IBD patients' ability to meet their obligations to their place of employment.

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Results

Conclusion