The Clinical Course of Bowel Urgency Severity Among Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease-A Real-World Study.

Background: Bowel urgency is a highly burdensome symptom among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Objectives: To assess changes in severity of bowel urgency and identify predictors of worsening or improvement among patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) at 6 months from their enrollment visit.

Methods: Data from patients in the Study of a Prospective Adult Research Cohort with IBD were analyzed. Enrolled patients with CD or UC with 6-month visits were included. Changes and predictors of bowel urgency severity over 6 months in patients with CD or UC were examined using two separate analyses: (a) "worsening" versus "no change" excluding those with moderate-to-severe bowel urgency at enrollment, and (b) "improvement" versus "no change" excluding those with no bowel urgency at enrollment. The enrollment characteristics were compared within these groups.

Results: At baseline, in both CD and UC, use of biologics and/or immunomodulators at enrollment was similar across cohorts. Among patients with CD, 206 of 582 (35.4%) reported worsening, and 195 of 457 (42.7%) reported improvement in bowel urgency. Younger age (P = 0.013) and moderate-to-severe bowel urgency (P < 0.001) were associated with improvement. Moderate bowel urgency (P = 0.026) and bowel incontinence while awake (P = 0.022) were associated with worsening. Among patients with UC, 84 of 294 (28.6%) reported worsening, and 111 of 219 (50.7%) reported improvement in bowel urgency. Higher symptomatic disease severity (P = 0.011) and more severe bowel urgency (P < 0.001) were associated with improvement.

Conclusions: Bowel urgency is an unpredictable and unstable symptom among patients with IBD. Over 50% of patients with CD or UC experienced either worsening or improvement at 6 months postenrollment.