Developing an Inflammatory Bowel Disease Specific Frailty Assessment
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing an Inflammatory Bowel Disease Specific Frailty Assessment Tool
IRAS ID
318421
Contact name
Christian Selinger
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leeds teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
PR Committee, 23/PR/1305
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 1 days
Research summary
We are treating growing numbers of older inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. These lifelong diseases cause inflammation in the gut affecting 1% of the UK population with 25% being aged over 65. However, older patients are often excluded from clinical trials but may experience more serious problems from IBD medications like infections, cancer, and hospitalisation. This may explain why they are sometimes given less effective treatments leading to poor control of their condition.
As we age our bodies change and can lose their inbuilt reserves, leading to frailty. Older people with frailty can experience dramatic health changes because of small problems like new medications or infections. Unfortunately, the importance of frailty in IBD has not been recognised until recently. Doctors use ‘frailty assessment tools’ to identify frail patients. The trouble with using these for IBD is that some symptoms associated with frailty are also IBD symptoms, so IBD patients could be wrongly labelled as frail. We aim to develop an IBD frailty assessment tool to help doctors and patients understand who is more likely to become unwell after starting advanced IBD treatments, helping everyone make the best treatment decisions.
We have summarised the current research on IBD and frailty and analysed data exploring how frailty before starting IBD treatment is associated with hospitalisation. We plan to discuss the results with patients and clinicians to develop a frailty assessment tool. We will then see how practical this tool is in clinic by testing it with around forty patients about to start IBD treatments. We will use interviews to understand how acceptable and manageable it is for patients. All patients involved will be invited to a meeting to help us understand which parts are most important to them and guide us how to tell other patients about our results.
REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/PR/1305
Date of REC Opinion
19 Dec 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion