The impact of biological interventions for ulcerative colitis on health-related quality of life.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the colon that has a relapsing-remitting course. Health related quality of life (HRQL) is significantly lower in patients with UC than the general population due to the negative effects of the disease on physical, psychological and social well-being. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating medical interventions for UC have traditionally used clinical disease activity indices that focus on symptoms to define primary outcomes such as clinical remission or improvement. However, this approach does not evaluate benefits that are highly relevant to patients such as HRQL OBJECTIVES: The primary objective was to assess the impact of biologic therapy on the HRQL of UC patients.