About the project
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are increasing worldwide and mainly affect younger people. For many IBD will lead to a long life with frequent need for health services, reduced work capacity and significant psychosocial and socio-economic consequences.
Treatment strategies
Historically, treatment of IBD focused on symptom relief and involved long-term use of immunosuppressive medications and/or repeated surgeries.
In the last decade, treatment has changed substantially with the introduction of biological therapies together with an early intervention strategy with tight controls to gain sustained control of the gastrointestinal inflammation.
The long-term effectiveness of this new treatment strategy, however, is still uncertain, both in reducing bowel damage, surgeries and hospitalizations, and the socioeconomic impacts on the patients and society at large.
Health care under pressure
The healthcare and social welfare system need to prepare for an increasing number of IBD patients with changing demographics. For this, accurate data on incidence, treatment trends, and impacts are vital.
The overarching aim of the present study is to provide such data.
Collection of data
We will use research strengths that are unique to Norway; the possibility of combining large clinical studies (IBSEN and IBSEN III) with high-quality public register data.
The IBSEN study and the ongoing IBSEN III study will provide comparable data from IBD patients in the pre- and post-biologic eras, respectively.
Data from these studies will be combined with the Norwegian Patient Register and FD-Trygd database to obtain detailed information about the disease and evaluate the socio-economic consequences of today’s treatment strategy.
Aim of research
Our main aim is to generate knowledge that is important to be able to optimize treatment and care for IBD patients while maintaining a sustainable health and welfare system for the future.