The IBD-Control Questionnaire was developed to measure “disease control from the patient perspective”.

The overall concept of “control” encompasses the traditional domains of health related quality-of-life (physical, psychological and social impacts) plus a novel domain of treatment perception. This differs from other PROMs focused on HRQoL alone, where feelings about the usefulness of current treatments are not included.

Copyright for IBD-Control is reserved: © Keith Bodger 2014

The questionnaire is made freely available to the IBD community without charge. For further details, click Permission, which is on the main menu of the website.

Click Permission, which is on the main menu of the website.

Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to administer only the eight questions that comprise the IBD-Control-8 score (range: 0 to 16). This is the validated "short form" for the questionnaire.

Many users of the IBD-Control Questionnaire focus on collecting these eight questions, which should be asked in the same order as they appear in the full-length version. Our online calculator for the short form illustrates the correct presentation and scoring.

There are some advantages to using the full-length version, which captures additional information about recent change in health status (Q2) and some stand-alone items that may flag additional concerns (Q4a to Q4d). Finally, a visual analogue scale (“feeling thermometer”) is included in the full-length questionnaire and provides an additional overall score, the IBD-Control-VAS score (range: 0 to 100).

No, this is not recommended. The IBD-Control-8 is the main summary score derived from eight of the questions. Two points are awarded for the most “positive” response, one point for the “neutral” response (Not Sure) and zero points for the “negative” response. The psychometric performance of the IBD-Control-8 has been studied extensively. The IBD-Control-VAS provides a complimentary overall rating of patient-perceived control.

For further information, download our Guidance, visit the Evidence page or try-out the online calculator for the full-length and short form versions.

By design, IBD-Control focuses on asking broad questions that are relevant to anyone living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.

Symptoms may vary from one person to another depending on their type of IBD, its extent or the presence of specific complications. Other questionnaires are available for asking about individual symptoms (e.g. stool frequency, rectal bleeding, urgency, abdominal pain, etc). These need to be tailored to the person’s specific type of IBD. For example, alternative versions of “PRO-2” questionnaires are often used to assess common symptoms. For people with a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease, the PRO-2 focuses on questions about abdominal pain and liquid stool frequency, whereas the PRO-2 for ulcerative colitis asks about rectal bleeding and stool frequency.

The choice of PROMs depends on the purpose of the assessment and it’s common to use a combination of instruments. IBD-Control offers a rapid, generic assessment of some important feelings and impacts that can affect anyone with a diagnosis of IBD, regardless of their individual set of gut symptoms.

Yes, there are a growing number of translations available and some have been formally tested for cross-cultural validity and confirmation of psychometric performance. Please contact us for further information.