Do inflammatory bowel disease patient preferences from treatment outcomes differ by ethnicity and gender? A cross-sectional observational study

Table 1 Mean priority score given to each inflammatory bowel disease disk item

Item	Please score how important it is to you that the medical treatment will improve each of the following parameters, at a score of 1: not important at all to 10: very important	Jewish, mean (SD)	Arab, mean (SD)	P value1
Abdominal pain	Aches or pains in my stomach or abdomen	9.03 (1.88)	6.69 (2.83)	< 0.001
Regulating defecation	Difficulty coordinating and managing defecation, including choosing and getting to an appropriate place for defecation and cleaning myself afterword	8.8 (2.21)	6.54 (3.05)	< 0.001
Energy	Feeling rested and refreshed during the day, and improving feeling tired and without energy	8.8 (2.06)	6.59 (3.14)	< 0.001
Education and work	Difficulty with school activities or studying, and/or difficulty with work or household activities	7.81 (2.8)	6.51 (3.28)	< 0.001
Emotions	Felt sad, low or depressed, and/or worried or anxious	7.62 (2.98)	6.19 (3.26)	< 0.001
Sleep	Difficulty sleeping, such as falling asleep, waking up frequently during the night or waking up too early in the morning	7.6 (3.16)	5.65 (3.55)	< 0.001
Joint pain	Pains in the joints of my body	7.33 (3.26)	5.32 (3.69)	< 0.001
Interpersonal interactions	Difficulty with personal relationships and/or difficulty participating in the community	6.93 (3.26)	6.06 (3.41)	0.013
Sexual function	Difficulty with the mental and/or physical aspects of sex	6.52 (3.31)	4.29 (3.38)	< 0.001
Body image	Like the way my body or body parts look	6.25 (3.25)	5.61 (3.18)	0.057

¹P value between Jewish and Arab patients.

SD: Standard deviation.

Table 2 Demographic, socio-economic and disease characteristics of all inflammatory bowel disease patients

Characteristic	Total, N = 361, n (%)	Jewish, n= 240, n (%)	Arab, n = 121, n (%)	P value1
Age, median (IQR)	35 (27-46)	37 (27-47)	33 (28-43)	0.053
Female	203 (56.2)	151 (62.9)	52 (43.3)	< 0.001
Years of education, median (IQR), (n = 353, missing = 8)	12 (12-16)	14 (12-16)	12 (12-16)	< 0.001
Education (n = 359, missing = 2)				0.02
Elementary school	8 (2.2)	2 (0.8)	6 (5)
High school	147 (41)	94 (39.3)	53 (44.2)
Higher education	204 (56.8)	143 (59.8)	61 (50.8)
Residence (n = 359, missing = 2)				< 0.001
Urban	242 (67.4)	188 (78.3)	54 (45.4)
Rural	117 (32.6)	52 (21.7)	65 (54.6)
Marital status (n = 360, missing = 1)				< 0.001
Relationship	217 (60.3)	162 (67.8)	55 (45.4)
Single	119 (33)	60 (25.1)	59 (48.8)
Widowed/divorced	24 (6.7)	17 (17.1)	7 (5.8)
Employed				0.012
No	93 (25.8)	52 (21.7)	41 (33.9)
Yes	268 (74.2)	188 (78.3)	80 (66.1)
Average number of hours worked per week, median (IQR), (n = 240, missing = 121)	31 (10.25-41)	40 (21-45)	15 (8-36)	< 0.001
Income level (n = 320, missing = 41)				< 0.001
Below average	192 (60)	112 (51.6)	80 (77.6)
Average	48 (15)	36 (16.6)	12 (11.7)
Above average	80 (25)	69 (31.8)	11 (10.7)
Co-morbidity2	72 (19.9)	58 (24.2)	14 (11.6)	0.005
Disease type (n = 359, missing = 2)				0.734
Crohn's disease	240 (66.5)	161 (68.8)	79 (66.4)
Ulcerative colitis	113 (31.3)	73 (31.2)	40 (33.6)
Undetermined IBD	6 (1.7)	6	0
Years since diagnosis, median (IQR), (n = 328, missing = 33)	8 (4-14)	9 (4-17)	6 (3-10)	0.01
IBD Disease activity last three years (n = 347, missing = 14)				0.97
Mostly quiet	85 (24.5)	57 (24.9)	28 (23.7)
1-2 attacks	139 (40)	91 (39.7)	48 (40.7)
Primarily active disease	123 (35.5)	81 (35.4)	42 (35.6)
Current steroid treatment	26 (7.2)	19 (7.9)	7 (5.7)	0.459
Current biologics treatment	216 (59.8)	143 (59.6)	73 (60.3)	0.889
Treatment effective (n = 328, missing = 33)				0.754
No-0	35 (10.7)	24 (11.2)	11 (9.6)
Yes-2	204 (62.2)	130 (60.7)	74 (64.9)
Partially-1	89 (27.1)	60 (28)	29 (25.4)

¹P value between Jewish and Arab patients.

²Co-morbidity included one or more of the following: diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, heart disease, chronic lung disease, other.

IQR: Interquartile range; IBD: Inflammatory bowel disease.