The Crohn’s Disease–Health Index

Abstract

Objective: We sought to develop and validate the Crohn’s Disease–Health Index (CD-HI), a disease-specific, patient-reported outcome measure that serially measures Crohn’s disease (CD) symptomatic burden in adults with CD. Background: As therapeutic interventions are tested among patients with CD, responsive outcome measures are needed to track disease progression and therapeutic gain during clinical trials. Patients and Methods: We conducted a national cross-sectional study of individuals with CD to identify the most prevalent and impactful symptoms of CD. The most relevant symptoms were included in the CD-HI. We used factor analysis, qualitative patient interviews, test-retest reliability evaluation, and known group validity testing to evaluate and optimize the CD-HI. Results: The CD-HI contains 12 subscales that comprehensively measure CD burden using the patient’s perspective. Fifteen adults with CD beta tested the CD-HI and found the instrument to be clear, easy to use, and relevant to them. Twenty-three adults with CD participated in an assessment of test-retest reliability, which indicated high reliability of individual questions, subscales, and the full instrument (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.84 for the full instrument). The CD-HI and its subscales demonstrated a high internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.98 for the full instrument). The CD-HI distinguished between groups of individuals with CD known to differ in disease severity. Conclusions: This research supports the use of the CD-HI as a valid, sensitive, reliable, and relevant patient-reported outcome to determine the multifactorial disease burden of those with CD, assess the relevance and merit of future CD therapies, and support drug labeling claims.