Health-related quality of life, work productivity, and persisting challenges in treated ulcerative colitis patients: a Japanese National Health and Wellness Survey

Background/Aims Despite available treatments for ulcerative colitis (UC), unmet needs persist among patients in Japan. This study explored the health-related quality of life (HRQoL), work productivity and activity impairment (WPAI), indirect cost, and unmet needs among treated UC patients in Japan.
Methods This cross-sectional, observational study utilized data from the online 2017, 2019, and 2021 Japan National Health and Wellness Survey. Respondents were aged ≥ 18 years and had undergone or were on UC treatment (5-aminosalicylic acid, steroids, immunomodulators/immunosuppressants, biologics/Janus kinase inhibitors [JAKi]). Demographic, general health, and clinical characteristics, medication adherence, HRQoL, WPAI, and indirect cost were collected and analyzed.
Results Among 293 treated UC patients, 83.6% were non-biologic/JAKi users, 29.0% had UC ≥ 15 years, 34.8% had moderate-to-severe disease severity, 55.3% experienced ≥ 1 persisting UC symptom, and 91.5% reported UC as bothersome to an extent. Patients reported EuroQoL visual analog scale score of 68.1 and ≥ 35% reported anxiety and depression. Mean work productivity loss was 29.3%, resulting in an annual mean indirect loss of 1.1 million JPY (45.3 thousand USD) per person. Higher WPAI (impairment) was associated with being male, moderate-to-severe disease severity, and low treatment adherence (P<0.05). Biologics/JAKi users had higher work impairment, and IM/IS users had higher activity impairment than 5-aminosalicylic acid users (P<0.05).
Conclusions Despite treatment, Japanese UC patients experienced high disease burden and persistent disease-related challenges. Overall HRQoL were lower than the mean healthy population and work productivity impairment led to high indirect costs. The findings suggest the importance of new interventions for optimizing UC outcomes.