Quality of Life in Eosinophilic Esophagitis

Rationale: Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic immune-mediated, esophageal disease. Although change in histology as well as symptom scores following implementation of different treatment modalities have been explored previously, major patient-oriented outcome measures such as quality of life (QoL) have not been well examined in EoE. QoL issues in patients with EoE are distinct and potentially as devastating as those faced by the general food allergy community. We hypothesize that Qol is significantly impeded in patients with EoE.

Methods: The Goryeb Children's Hospital Department of Gastroenterology recruited one patient to date between the age of 5-18 for a prospective quality of life study.  The PedsQL^TM as well as the EoE-specific Pediatric QoL Inventory was administered to the child and parent. Active enrollment of patients is currently ongoing.  We plan to have at least 20 subjects by the annual meeting.  Data will be compared with Qol measurements from healthy controls as obtained from the 2005 study by Youssef, et al. 

Results: Physical and social functioning was not significantly affected with patient reported overall score of 0 (never have problems with) in each category. While emotional functioning mildly diminished, the most significantly affected category was school functioning with the patient stating that it is often hard to pay attention in school and he often forgets things.

Conclusions: Health related quality of life is an important outcome in clinical trials, clinical improvement strategies and population-based health assessment. We hope to further explore it within the world of EoE at the completion of this study.