P0614 Positive association of inflammatory bowel disease service research activity and adult patient-reported quality of care in the United Kingdom
Authors: Mulligan R , Brookes M J , Ryan P , Turner J , Beck L , Selinger C P , Hawthorne A B , Lamb C A ,   IBD UK Board
Published: January 2025

Background

Engagement with research has been shown to be associated with improved patient experience and outcomes at an institutional level in several disease areas1-3. However, this relationship has so far not been explored in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of the present study was to assess the relationship between research activity of IBD services across the United Kingdom (UK) and patient-reported quality of care provided by that service.

Methods

Patient-reported care quality data was collected across the UK through the 2023 IBD UK Patient Survey. Patients rated the overall quality of their care in the preceding 12 months as “poor”, “fair”, “good”, “very good” or “excellent”. High-quality care was defined as responses of “excellent,” “very good,” or “good”. Data related to paediatric services and adult services with fewer than 5 patient responses were excluded. The proportion of patients reporting high quality care at each service was compared with the number of patients recruited to research studies registered with the national central portfolio management system (CPMS) within the previous three years (2020-2022). The CPMS is a cloud-based system that holds the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) clinical research network portfolio of studies in England, in addition to the network of portfolios in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Analyses were performed where recruitment identified IBD as the primary subspecialty and gastroenterology was the managing specialty.

Results

Research recruitment data from 32,432 recruited research participants across 192 IBD services were aligned with 11,738 care quality responses and included in the analysis. Overall, there was a positive correlation between the number of patients recruited to research studies in an IBD service and the proportion of patients reporting high quality care (Spearman r (95% CI) 0.2044 (0.06047-0.3400) p=0.0045). An iterative Grubbs’ Test identified 6 IBD services as outliers. After excluding these services, the positive correlation was maintained (Spearman r (95% CI) 0.1946 (0.04788-0.3331) p=0.0078; Figure 1).

Conclusion

This study identifies a positive association between the research activity of IBD services and patient-perceived quality of care, highlighting the benefits of active research engagement in IBD care.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the patients who submitted survey responses and to the IBD UK Board members.

References

1.Downing A, Morris EJ, Corrigan N, et al. High hospital research participation and improved colorectal cancer survival outcomes: a population-based study. Gut. 2017;66(1):89-96. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2015-311308

2.Ozdemir BA, Karthikesalingam A, Sinha S, et al. Research activity and the association with mortality. PLoS One. 2015;10(2):e0118253. Published 2015 Feb 26. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118253

3.Jonker L, Fisher SJ, Dagnan D. Patients admitted to more research-active hospitals have more confidence in staff and are better informed about their condition and medication: Results from a retrospective cross-sectional study. J Eval Clin Pract. 2020;26(1):203-208. doi:10.1111/jep.13118