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The effects of body image impairment on the quality of life of non-operated Portuguese female IBD patients

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Abstract

Objectives

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and their treatment are known to negatively impact on patients’ body image, especially female patients. However, although there are broad evidences of body image impairment in female IBD patients, its negative impact on the quality of life (QoL) of non-operated women is not clearly and specifically studied. The aim of the current study was therefore to analyse, in a sample of non-operated female IBD patients, the factors that contribute to body image impairment and its impact on QoL.

Methods

Ninety-six non-operated women (39.7 % with CD and 60.3 % with UC), aged between 18 and 40 years old, completed an online survey with validated self-report measures, which included the Body Image Scale and the WHO Brief Quality of Life Assessment Scale.

Results

Negative body image was correlated with lower psychological and physical QoL and increased corticosteroids use, associated medical complications, body mass index (BMI), and IBD symptomatology. Regression analyses revealed that BMI and IBD symptomatology significantly predicted body image impairment. Furthermore, results from path analyses indicated that BMI and IBD symptomatology’s effect on psychological and physical QoL was mediated through the negative effects of body image impairment. This model explained 31 % of psychological QoL and 41 % of physical QoL.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that non-operated female patients are subject to pervasive and harmful effects of body image impairment on psychological and physical functioning. Therefore, psychological interventions aiming to target body dissatisfaction should be implemented in the health care of IBD, independently of patients’ operative status.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Portuguese Association for IBD (Associação Portuguesa para a Doença Inflamatória do Intestino; APDI) for their valuable help during the recruitment process of this study’s sample.

Funding

Research by the first author is supported by a Ph.D. Grant (SFRH/BD/101906/2014) sponsored by FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive and Behavioural Centre for Research and Intervention (CINEICC), Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Rua do Colégio Novo, 3000-115, Coimbra, Portugal

    Inês A. Trindade, Cláudia Ferreira & José Pinto-Gouveia

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  1. Inês A. Trindade
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  2. Cláudia Ferreira
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  3. José Pinto-Gouveia
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Correspondence to Inês A. Trindade.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the International Research Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Trindade, I.A., Ferreira, C. & Pinto-Gouveia, J. The effects of body image impairment on the quality of life of non-operated Portuguese female IBD patients. Qual Life Res 26, 429–436 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-016-1378-3

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