Sources of information and factual knowledge in Europeans with inflammatory bowel diseases: a cross-cultural comparison between German and Irish patients.

BACKGROUND Disease related knowledge may be associated with quality of life, coping skills and medication adherence. However, little is known of cross-cultural variations regarding inflammatory bowel disease knowledge or sources of information and no study has assessed knowledge in diverse European IBD populations. AIM To assess sources of information and patient knowledge in Irish and German inflammatory bowel disease patients. METHODS Three hundred and three disease, gender, age and education matched German and Irish patients completed a previously validated knowledge questionnaire. Additional data were collected on age, gender, education, disease type and duration, family history, smoking habits, medication use, previous surgery and quality of life. RESULTS German patients obtained knowledge from a wider range of sources than Irish patients (p<0.001), most notably from the internet (p<0.001), newspapers and magazines (p=0.002). Both cohorts answered a similar number of questions correctly (Irish, mean 4.4 questions (Standard deviation (S.D.) 2.4); German, mean 4.3 (S.D. 2.2); p=0.67). In addition, both nationalities answered "don't know" to a similar number of questions (Irish, mean 3.3 (S.D. 3.1); German, mean 2.7 (S.D. 2.8); p=0.12) while Irish patients answered slightly fewer questions wrongly (Irish, mean 2.4 (S.D. 1.8); German, mean 3.1 (S.D. 1.9); p=0.002). A multivariate analysis included only Crohn's disease, female gender, young age and higher educational status as being significantly and independently associated with knowledge. CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest few differences between German and Irish IBD patients, despite cultural and linguistic differences, with regard to disease related knowledge of IBD.