Investigating the effectiveness of lifestyle education package in patients with ulcerative colitis: A clinical trial

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory disease that lifestyle can play a role in the onset or exacerbation of its physical symptoms and psychological consequences. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a lifestyle educational package on the fatigue severity, perceived disease and quality of life in patients with ulcerative colitis.

The present study was a two-group clinical trial. The sample included 32 patients with ulcerative colitis who were timely randomly selected and randomly placed in two groups of lifestyle and control. The lifestyle group was underwent with 10 sessions 120-minute of lifestyle training. The effect of the intervention was evaluated using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS-9), the Brief-Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ-9) and the Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis Questionnaire (CUCQ-32).

The results analysis showed that the differences of mean scores of the two groups of lifestyle and control in fatigue severity, perceived disease and quality of life in the post-test stage were not statistically significant. But, improvement in all three variables was significant in lifestyle group in terms of three stages of intragroup assessment.

Changes in various aspects of lifestyle can be effective in managing of ulcerative colitis and its consequences, but the changes does not seem to be easy because of its habitual nature. It requires a relatively long term time.