The relationship between socio-demographic factors, health status, treatment type, and employment outcome in patients with inflammatory bowel disease in Japan

J Mahlich,K Matsuoka,R Sruamsiri,Y Nakamura

doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4516-0

Abstract

BackgroundInflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) constitutes a huge burden for patients and studies show that IBD patients have difficulties remaining in employment. Because there is no data about the unemployment of IBD patients in Japan.MethodsWe surveyed a representative sample of 1068 Japanese IBD patients regarding their employment status.ResultsWe found that the labor force participation rate is lower and unemployment higher for patients with IBD compared to the general population. Factors associated with unemployment in the IBD sample are older age, female gender, and the prevalence of depression.DiscussionIBD constitutes a high burden for patients in Japan regarding employment outcome.

Highlights

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) constitutes a huge burden for patients and studies show that IBD patients have difficulties remaining in employment
48% of patients were diagnosed as IBD more than 9 years ago, 24.1% had an experience of surgical treatment, and 17.7% were receiving biologic treatments
We found that a higher burden of unemployment was imposed on patients with IBD compared with the Japanese general population

Summary

Introduction

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) constitutes a huge burden for patients and studies show that IBD patients have difficulties remaining in employment. Discussion: IBD constitutes a high burden for patients in Japan regarding employment outcome. In Japan, the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare reports that there are 140,000 patients with Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and 40,000 with Crohn’s Disease (CD). Patients with mild to moderate Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) are probably not covered by these numbers and the actual numbers of IBD patients in Japan are estimated to be 20% to 40% higher [1]. The mortality of IBD is relatively small with a 10-year cumulative survival rate of 96% in patients with UC [4] and 96.9% in patients with CD in Japan [5], IBD constitutes a significant burden to patients. Impaired domains included physical functioning, role physical, vitality, social functioning, role emotional, and mental health

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