Quality of life in patients with acute severe ulcerative colitis: long-term follow-up results from the CONSTRUCT trial.

Background: there is currently limited research examining the QoL of patients with Ulcerative colitis (UC) following treatment of acute severe colitis (ASUC). Objective: to examine the long-term QoL of ASUC patients enrolled in the CONSTRUCT trial following treatment of UC with infliximab or ciclosporin and to compare the differences in the QoL between the two drug treatments over time. Methods: The CONSTRUCT trial examined the cost and clinical effectiveness of infliximab and ciclosporin treatments for acute severe UC. We collected QoL questionnaire data from patients during the active trial period up to 36 months. Following trial completion, we contacted patients postannually for up to a maximum of 84 months. We collected QoL data using a disease-specific (CUCQ, or CUCQ+ for patients who had colectomy surgery) or generic (EQ5D-3L) questionnaire. We analysed QoL scores to determine if there was any difference over time and between treatments in generic or disease-specific QoL. Results: Following initial treatment with infliximab and ciclosporin, patients experienced a statistically significant improvement in both the generic and disease-specific QoL at three months. Generic scores remained fairly static for the whole follow-up period, reducing only slightly up to 84 months. Disease-specific scores showed a much sharper improvement up to 2 years with a gradual reduction in QoL up to 84 months. Generic and disease-specific QoL remained higher than baseline values. There was no significant difference between treatments in any of the QoL scores. Conclusions: Both infliximab and ciclosporin improve QoL following initial treatment for ASUC. QoL scores remain higher than at admission up to 84 months post-treatment.