Italian validation of the IBD-disk tool for the assessment of disability in inflammatory bowel diseases: A cross-sectional multicenter study

Introduction: IBD-Disk is a simple, easy-to-use, and self-administered analogue visual tool for assessing disability in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). However, it has not yet been validated in Italian. This study aims to validate IBD-Disk in an Italian cross-sectional multicentre study. Methods: This study was conducted in eight IBD centres from February 2023 to October 2023. After forward-backwards translation of IBD-Disk into Italian, patients consecutively completed IBD-Disk (at baseline and after 7 days), IBD-Disability Index (IBD-DI) and IBDQ-32 for quality of life. Results: We enrolled 767 patients (377, 49,2% CD; 390, 50,8% UC) who completed the IBD-Disk [median score of 30 (IQR=11–52)]. Internal consistency was excellent, with Cronbach's α of 0.92 (95%CI=0.92–0.92). To evaluate the validity, the IBD-Disk was compared with the IBD-DI and IBDQ-32, revealing a significant positive correlation of 0.70 (95% CI=0.66–0.73; p<0.001) and 0.83 (r=0.83, 95% CI=0.80–0.85; p<0.001), respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.84 (95% CI=0.82–0.86) for test-retest. Female gender, clinically active IBD and the presence of extraintestinal manifestations led to higher IBD-Disk scores. Conclusion: This study validated the IBD-Disk in a large cohort of Italian IBD patients, demonstrating that it is a valid, reliable and responsive tool for quantifying IBD-related disability. This validation facilitates its integration into the daily clinical management of IBD patients.