Evaluation of inflammatory bowel disease-related sleep disorders based on an interpretable machine learning approach: a multicenter study in China.

Background: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) often encounter complications such as sleep disorders, which are of great detriment to their quality of life, and earlier identification and intervention can effectively improve the prognosis of patients.

Objectives: In this study, we worked on building a risk model to assess IBD-related sleep disorders using a machine learning (ML) approach.

Design: Observational study.

Methods: Based on an online questionnaire, we collected clinical data from 2478 IBD patients from 42 hospitals in 22 Chinese provinces between September 2021 and May 2022. Then, we developed and validated six common ML models to assess the risk of co-morbid sleep disorders in IBD patients, and evaluated and compared the performance of these models using relevant metrics. Finally, the Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations algorithm (Lime) was utilized to interpret the results of the best ML model.

Results: In this study, after multidimensional comparisons, the voting model was finally identified as superior among several models, with the area under the curve and accuracy reaching 0.76 and 0.74, respectively. After calculations, it was found that the co-morbidities of depression and anxiety, an older age, outpatient diagnosis, and a longer course of the disease were all indicative of a higher risk of sleep disorders among IBD patients in this model.

Conclusion: The construction of risk assessment models using ML has high clinical value in the prediction of IBD-related sleep disorders, and the efficacy of its application suggests it can serve as a promising evaluation tool in clinical work.