College Adjustment with IBD - STUDY

[jdbrowning]

Hi everyone,

I’m a medial student doing IBD research at the University of Michigan this summer. We are trying to better understand how having inflammatory bowel disease impacts students in college. Specifically, we are looking to see if having Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis has any impact on the students' ability to adjust to college. Hopefully with this information, students with IBD can get the support they need during this important time of their lives.

If you are a college-aged student and would like to take part in this important study, just PM/email me and I will send you the link. We need students with and without IBD so everyone can help advance research into Crohn's and UC!!

You can PM me or e-mail me with any questions you have. My email address is [email protected].

Thank you all so much for your help!

Jeff

 

[Keona]

lol...seriously?..your hypothesis is, "if having Crohn's disease or UC has any impact on the students ability to adjust to college?!?"

....what part of your life doesn't it have an impact on?

 

[jdbrowning]

Sadly no study has been directed at this basic, common sense knowledge. The knowledge base needs to be there for effective intervention to help students with Crohn's during college. But you are very right...COMMON SENSE!

 

[Keona]

So then couldn't your hypothesis read something like "those with IBD and having difficulty adjusting to college would benefit from accommodations" and then outline the ways in which it interferes with college and the accommodations that would benefit those with IBD?

What year are you in medical school? Im assuming you meant "medical."

 

[jdbrowning]

No, that study would be one step ahead of where we are with this project. I will PM you the link to the pilot study paper of our project for clarification, hope that helps!

I'm an M2 by the way!

Thanks!

 

[Keona]

hmmm..but the study you have sent me already hypothesizes: "We hypothesize that disease activity negatively impacts on QOL, and adversely affects college adjust- ment."

...and dated 2008.

Anyhow, good luck with your study - just curious about what you were doing.

 

[jdbrowning]

Yes, we are still testing that hypothesis with this nation-wide study (the pilot was only University of Michigan students). However, we aren't testing anything to do with accommodations at the moment.

Thanks for you interest! Its going to take some luck to get the number of students we need.

Jeff

 

[Mike]

Send me some info if you don't mind. I'm in two other studies in my home state as well.

 

[Petra1991]

Feel free to send me some info on all of this My Crohns decided it was going to show up while I was away at school

 

[Jennifer]

I hope it goes towards more accommodations rather then simply notifying your professor and hoping they believe you or care.

When I was in college I was told to contact the department that helps students with disabilities to let them know that I am disabled and that I needed them to back me up stating that I need more time with tests, that I may miss school, etc. But when I went there, they didn't consider crohns disease a disability even though it is one in the eyes of the US government. So they told me to just inform my professors myself and not all of them understood or forgot and some didn't care or didn't seem to believe me and just thought that I was lazy student leading to poor grades and a below average GPA.

 

[Jennifer]

Sad. I can't participate in this study because I'm a graduate. Aslo, this part doesn't make sense to me:

"If you have another chronic illness, such as asthma, diabetes, depression, substance abuse, pregnancy, uncertain Inflammatory Bowel Disease, or another major life stressor within the last year, we regret that you cannot participate in this study."

When you were all creating this study, did you not take into account that depression is often a major factor when having IBD? So in a sense, that rule would make it so no one could complete this study. And I'm not talking, "oh I feel sad today," I'm talking actual clinical depression. It's a common side effect to the medications we have to take, its common to that particular age group and its common among anyone with any disease/illness.

Plus isn't going to college considered a "major life stressor?"

 

[jdbrowning]

That is because those conditions may lead to inaccuracies when trying to gauge disease activity of IBD. Depression has physical manifestations that would do this. Very good point though. I will bring that up to my PI and see what her reasoning was (I'm sure it was sound logic). College is a major life stressor but that statement is obviously not meant to include that.

 

[jdbrowning]

While I was not involved in designing this study, I do know that a statistician helped prepare something similar to what you have mentioned. However, I cannot comment on the specifics because I don't know them.

Thanks for all the comments! If someone wants to post the link to the study in this thread, it would be a great help! (I can't post links on the message board yet due to my low post count).

 

[teeny5]

Hi JD. I would agree that depression and the disease often go hand in hand. I believe my depression/anxiety was sparked due to being in chronic pain. The disease by itself puts a lot of strain on our bodies that isn't always seen from the outside. Sounds like your study means well. I hope you don't take the comments here the wrong way. I know I just want you to better understand where I come from. I think it's great that there is an interest at all about the disease by anyone who doesn't have it. I had never even heard of it prior to being diagnosed.

 

[Keona]

okay so if Im in 4th year trying to get in to grad school, needing high grades - wouldn't that be considered a high stressor? Also, being a student medication is very expensive - very difficult to afford financially. Wouldn't that be considered a life stressor?
-or-
often with Crohn's (but not always) individuals can also have arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis is this considered the same or separate chronic illness?

 

[Jennifer]

Here's the link for anyone who hasn't seen it as requested by Jeff:
http://www.med.umich.edu/ibd/research2.htm

 

[jdbrowning]

Hey everyone.

If anyone hasn't take the survey, please do! We are still looking for 48 more college students with IBD to take part in the study. We truly appreciate your help.

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[jdbrowning]

If anyone knows any college students that they can forward this study to, we would truly appreciate it.

We are still looking for college students to take the survey posted above.

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[Sue-2009]

Jeff, good luck on your studies. I hope people share in their experience. I feel badly for the people who have suffered with Crohns or Colitis while in college. As a matter of fact, its bad all around!!! Good luck, I appreciate you guys at U of M. Sue

 

[Procyon]

I guess I'm ineligible from depression. Still, do you think you could let us know the results of the study after you've completed it? I'm interested. Good luck with your studies.

 

[jdbrowning]

Yes, I will definitely post the paper here when we are finished with the study! We are still working on getting enough people involved. So if you are college student and still haven't taken the survey, please do! Also, let your friends know about the survey via Facebook or email. We need about 150 more controls!

Here is the link http://www.med.umich.edu/ibd/research2.htm

And here is a new flier, let me know what you think!

http://flic.kr/p/8iwEvz

Thanks for your help!

Jeff

 

[Alzoid]

I'd be happy to participate in this, I'll fill it out soon... I am very interested in what the results will be.