Haapamäki J, Roine RP, Turunen U et al. J Crohns Colitis 2011;5:41–7.
Haapamäki and colleagues conducted a questionnaire-based study to determine the prevalence of comorbid diseases in a Finnish IBD population. They found a significant increase in the prevalence of coronary heart disease in IBD patients compared with controls, particularly in women.
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic inflammatory diseases of the bowel that are considered to be related to an increased risk of the development of other immune-mediated diseases. The aim of this Finnish study was to examine comorbidity in patients with IBD in comparison to a referral population, and to assess how health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is influenced by comorbidity with other chronic diseases. A HRQoL questionnaire package, which included the generic 15 dimensions (15D) and IBD questionnaire (IBDQ), was mailed to 5342 IBD patients. For each subject, two control subjects matched for age, sex, and hospital district were chosen from the Finnish Social Insurance Institution register. Data from 2831 questionnaires were available for the study and therefore 5662 control subjects were selected.