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Survey Reveals Differing Physician, Patient Perceptions
Nearly three out of four patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) consider feeling unwell to be a normal part of life, while gastroenterologists estimate this to be true for only 37 percent of their UC patients, according to results from a nationwide series of surveys presented today at the 2007 Crohn's & Colitis Foundation's 6th Annual Advances in the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases conference.
The series of surveys, titled "UC: NORMAL (New Observations on Remission Management and Lifestyle)," were sponsored by Shire Pharmaceuticals, a specialty biopharmaceutical company, which markets once-daily LIALDA and PENTASA (mesalamines) for UC.
"Before these surveys, patient and physician views on UC's impact had not been compared and the 'real-life' impact of UC had not been explored to this extent," says lead author David Rubin, MD, a gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center who helped design the surveys. "This series of surveys brings to light some challenges for the UC community: patients accept a high level of disruption from UC on their lives; physician and patient views regarding the impact of UC are not in alignment; and compliance with medications requiring multiple daily dosing is a challenge."
The UC: NORMAL surveys were fielded online between February and March 2007. For the physician survey, doctors were recruited by fax from a complete list of US board-certified gastroenterologists. Gastroenterologists who spent less than half their time in direct patient care were excluded from the study.
At the time the surveys were fielded (prior to the availability of a once-daily mesalamine), patients reported they found it difficult to adhere to medication dosing schedules. Forty-six percent of patients (n=451) reported they had not taken all of their medication in the past week and 41 percent of gastroenterologists (n=300) believed their patients were not adhering to their medications.
Interestingly, 83 percent of patients report they would be willing to change to a new medication if their physician advised that they do so, and 89 percent of patients report that they would be interested in trying aonce-daily 5-ASA medication.
According to survey results, some gastroenterologists may underestimate the level of disruption UC can have on patient lives. For example, 42 percent of patients surveyed report symptoms of UC cause some disruption to their everyday activities, while physicians estimate that this is true for just 17 percent of patients.