Publisher's Synopsis
Ulcerative Colitis (UC) together with Crohn's disease (CD) belongs to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). IBD is to date as frequent as Insulin Dependent Diabetes (IDDM) and is second to Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in its chronicity. Poor adherence in UC is a well known phenomenon, which is associated with a 5-fold increased risk of relapse and increased health care costs. Web-based treatment solution with self-initiated 5-ASA treatment in UC based on the patient's pattern recognition of the disease course had not been published previously. The aims of the research were: 1) In a European evidence based consensus to assess the IBD patients' need for Quality of Health Care (QoHC); 2) To validate the influence of a Patient Educational Center (PEC) and a web-based treatment solution program, www.constant-care.dk, on patients´ disease self-management, adherence, Quality of Life, and disease course after 1 year of self-initiated 5-ASA treatment. 3) To validate two new quantitative rapid tests (RT scanning and HT photo) for Faecal Calprotectin (FC) measurement, and to assess whether HT photo can be useful as a home test to help the patients deciding on self-initiated treatment.
