A comparison of self-perceived health status in inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome patients from a Canadian national population survey.
To determine whether differences exist in perceptions of physical health, mental health and stress levels between patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Data were obtained from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey, which had a sample size of 132,947 Canadians. Information on 4441 participants aged 19 years or older who reported that they had been diagnosed with Crohn's disease (n=474), ulcerative colitis (n=637) or IBS (n=3330) was analyzed regarding perceptions of their physical health, mental health, stress levels and activity levels.
Overall, IBD patients reported being in fair to poor health (P