Disease activity of IBD linked with poor sleep scores among pediatric patients

Among pediatric patients disease activity of IBD linked with poor sleep scores suggests a new study published in the European Journal of Pediatrics.

The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of sleep disturbance in pediatric IBD patients and evaluate the relationship between clinical features of IBD, disease activity, inflammatory markers and quality of sleep.

A total of 99 patients who were followed-up with the diagnosis of IBD (44 Crohn’s disease (CD), 55 Ulcerative colitis (UC)) between 2015–2020 and 80 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. The clinical and demographic characteristics, laboratory parameters and disease activities were obtained from medical reports retrospectively. Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) was administered to all participants. PSQI score was significantly higher in patient group than the control group (P < 0.001). The sleep time of patient group, especially patients with UC was later than the control group (P = 0.008). Sleep duration was longer in control group than the patient group (P < 0.001).

A positive strong correlation was obtained in disease activity index (r = 0.886; P < 0.001) and abdominal pain (r = 0.781; P < 0.001) with PSQI scores of CD patients. Disease activity index, rectal bleeding, diarrhea and number of stool had statistically significant positive strong correlation with PSQI scores of UC patients (P < 0.001). Pediatric Crohn’s disease activity index and Pediatric ulcerative colitis activity index were the only independent risk factors affecting sleep disturbances (80% sensitivity and 91.67% specificity, 93.1% sensitivity and %96.15 specificity, respectively).

Increased disease activity has adverse effects on sleep quality. PSQI and PCDAI were strong tests for predicting sleep disorders in pediatric patients with IBD.

In this retrospective study, it was found that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) activity was associated with poorer sleep scores in pediatric patients. Furthermore, pediatric patients with IBD demonstrated poorer overall sleep compared to controls, as evidenced by a later sleep time and shorter sleep duration in IBD patients.

Reference:

Gundogdu, D., Urgancı, N. & Usta, M. Relationship between disease activity index and sleep disorders in children with inflammatory bowel diseases. Eur J Pediatr (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-023-05081-2