Is religiosity/spirituality in patients with Crohn's disease important to their quality of life?

The authors aim to study Religiosity/Spirituality (R/S) and Quality of Life (QoL) in patients with Crohn's disease and their correlation with the disease phenotypes.

Methods

Prospective cross-sectional cohort study with 151 consecutive patients enrolled from March 2021 to October 2021 at the Colorectal IBD Outpatient of Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP). Sociodemographic, Religiosity/Spirituality (Duke University Religion Index – Durel) questionnaires and QoL (Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire – Short IBDQ-S) were applied. When necessary, qualitative variables were evaluated using the chi-square or Fisher's exact test. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskall-Wallis tests were used to analyze quantitative variables and compare more than two groups, both non-parametric statistical techniques.

Results

The most frequent location was Ileocolonic followed by Ileal and colonic (41.1 %, 27.2 %, and 25.2 %); only 6.6 % of subjects had a perianal presentation. Inflammatory, stenosing, and penetrating behaviors showed 36.4 %, 19.1 %, and 44.4 % respectively. The majority of the population is Catholic, Evangelical, or Spiritualist (92.4 %). QoL score showed no significant difference in the phenotypes. The scores for DUREL domains were 61.4 % for organizational religiosity, 75 % for non-organizational religiosity, 98.6 %, 93.6 % and 89.3 % for intrinsic spirituality, with high results in all disease phenotypes.

Conclusions

The studied population presented homogeneous sociodemographic results and high religious and spiritual activity. R/S in a positive context were not associated with better QoL or phenotype. R/S is present in the patients’ lives and could be seen as an important tool for adherence to treatment and the professional relationship between doctor and patient. The homogeneity of the sample difficult for an appropriate evaluation, which leads us to suggest new studies with more heterogeneous groups.