Health Maintenance and Preventative Care in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Background & Aims: Preventative care plays an important role in maintaining health in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We aimed to assess the overall quality, strength, and transparency of conflicts among guidelines on preventative care in IBD. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in multiple databases to identify all guidelines pertaining to preventative care in IBD in April 2021. All guidelines were reviewed for the transparency of conflicts of interest and funding, recommendation quality and strength, external guideline review, patient voice inclusion, and plan for update—as per Institute of Medicine standards. In addition, recommendations and their quality were compared between societies. Results: Fifteen distinct societies and a total of 89 recommendations were included. Not all guidelines provided recommendations on the key aspects of preventative care in IBD—such as vaccinations, cancer prevention, stress reduction, and diet/exercise. Sixty-seven percent of guidelines reported on conflicts of interest, 20% underwent external review, and 27% included patient representation. In all, 6.7%, 21.3%, and 71.9% of recommendations were based on high, moderate, and low-quality evidence, respectively. Twenty-seven percent, 23.6%, and 49.4% of recommendations were strong, weak/conditional, and did not provide a strength, respectively. The proportion of high-quality evidence (P=0.28) and strong recommendations (P=0.41) did not significantly differ across societies. Conclusions: Many guidelines do not provide recommendations on key aspects of preventative care in IBD. As over 70% of recommendations are based on low-quality evidence, further studies on preventative care in IBD are warranted to improve the overall quality of evidence.