Perceived medication adherence barriers mediating effects between gastrointestinal symptoms and health-related quality of life in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease
The primary objective was to investigate the mediating effects of patient-perceived medication adherence barriers in the relationship between gastrointestinal symptoms and generic health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The secondary objective explored patient health communication and gastrointestinal worry as additional mediators with medication adherence barriers in a serial multiple mediator model.
The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ Gastrointestinal Symptoms, Medicines, Communication, Gastrointestinal Worry, and Generic Core Scales were completed in a 9-site study by 172 adolescents with IBD. Gastrointestinal Symptoms Scales measuring stomach pain, constipation, or diarrhea and perceived medication adherence barriers were tested for bivariate and multivariate linear associations with HRQOL. Mediational analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized mediating effects of perceived medication adherence barriers as an intervening variable between gastrointestinal symptoms and HRQOL.
The predictive effects of gastrointestinal symptoms on HRQOL were mediated in part by perceived medication adherence barriers. Patient health communication was a significant additional mediator. In predictive analytics models utilizing multiple regression analyses, demographic variables, gastrointestinal symptoms (stomach pain, constipation, or diarrhea), and perceived medication adherence barriers significantly accounted for 45, 38, and 29 percent of the variance in HRQOL (all Ps < 0.001), respectively, demonstrating large effect sizes.
Perceived medication adherence barriers explain in part the effects of gastrointestinal symptoms on HRQOL in adolescents with IBD. Patient health communication to healthcare providers and significant others further explain the mechanism in the relationship between gastrointestinal symptoms, perceived medication adherence barriers, and HRQOL.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 July 2025.
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#13
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Altmetric has tracked 33,087,078 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 66th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,459 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its peers.
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