P021 Compensatory Use of Facebook Among Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Authors: Cury Giovana , Takamune Debora , Herrerias Giedre , de Barros Jaqueline , Baima Julio , Saad-Hossne Rogerio , Sassaki Ligia 
Published: December 2019

BACKGROUND:

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are chronic conditions which symptoms can be incapacitating, compromising daily activities and presential social interaction. As the use of social media is continuously increasing and Facebook (FB) is one of the most accessed networks worldwide, the present study aims to compare quality of life among IBD patients and its’ relation to how they interact through FB.

METHODS:

This cross-sectional study enrolled 100 IBD outpatients of Botucatu Clinic Hospital and 100 healthy controls. The exclusion criteria were non-users of FB for both groups and chronic diseases or gastrointestinal complaints for control group. Disease activity was measured using the Crohn’sn Disease Activity Index (CDAI) and the Mayo Score, in Crohn’s Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) patients, respectively. FB use was assessed through the Psycho-Social Aspects of Facebook Use (PSAFU) tool, which comprises 5 domains: compensatory use, self-presentation, socialization, addiction and virtual identity. The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ) and the SF-36 survey were applied to evaluate health-related quality of life. Statistical analysis: association tests, P < 0.05 and Pearson correlations.

RESULTS:

The IBD group included 54 patients with CD and 46 with UC. The age was 33.71 ± 10.08 years in IBD patients and 34.98 ± 11.21 in control group (P = 0.4). Female gender was predominant in both groups (63% among patients and 75% in control). In IBD group: disease duration was 7.73 ± 6.81 years and active disease was found in 32.61% and 22.22% of UC and CD patients, respectively. 68.69% of the patients have already sought information about IBD on the internet, 25% have been part of IBD groups on FB and 82.61% of them think it has been useful somehow. FB use seems to be similar between patients and control group according to the PSAFU questionnaire (P = 0.21) in all evaluated aspects, but two of them presented considerable difference increase when comparing a smaller previous sample (38 patients and 40 healthy people) with the current one: compensatory use (P = 0.09 vs P = 0.50) and socialization (P = 0.17 vs P = 0.57). Quality of life was worse in patients’ group (P = 0.004), mainly related to general health (P < 0.0001), physical (P = 0.001) and emotional (P = 0.04) aspects. Regarding the correlation between health-related quality of life and the purposes of FB access, compensatory use was negatively related to the following IBDQ domains: intestinal (R = −0.25; P = 0.01), systemic (R = −0.26; P = 0.008), emotional (R = −0.24; P = 0.02) and total (R = −0.25; P = 0.01). When it comes to FB addiction, it was observed inverse relation to IBDQ: intestinal (R = −0.28; P = 0.005), social (R = −0.23; P = 0.02), emotional (R = −0.33; P = 0.0007) and total (R = −0.3; P = 0.003). Addiction was also negatively correlated to SF-36 general health (R = −0.29; P = 0.003) and physical aspects (R = −0.21; P = 0.03) among patients while it has not shown statistical significance in healthy people (R = −0.19; P = 0.05 for general health and R = −0.19; P = 0.06 for physical aspects).

CONCLUSION(S):

IBD patients have worse quality of life when compared with healthy people and, thus, might use FB in a compensatory way in order to overcome their unsatisfactory health aspects and presential interaction. Nonetheless, it can lead to addiction.