P798 Quality of sexual life in patients with ulcerative colitis: a monocentric observational study. On behalf of IG-IBD

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are expected to have an adverse impact on sexual health. Depression and anxiety, common disorders in IBD, are known to be a risk factor for sexual dysfunction. Few data are available on the impact of IBD on relationships, body image and sexual function (SF). The aim of this study was to evaluate how ulcerative colitis (UC) may affected SF. We enrolled 51 consecutive UC patients and 32 controls in current partnership referred to our centre. They were asked to fill in 6 validated questionnaires on quality of life (IBDQ), SF (FSFI or IIEF, ISS), psychological well-being (PGWBI), anxiety/depression (HADS) and couple functioning (DAS). Disease activity was assessed using Partial Mayo Score (PMS) and faecal calprotectin levels. Statistical analysis was performed by Pearson test, Shapiro test, Bartlett test, the Paired Sample T-Test. Partial Component Analysis and the analysis of variance (ANOVA)were evaluated to compare behaviours of patients and controls groups. Many SF indexes were significantly higher for controls than for patients (ISS p = 0.018, for women FSFI p = 0.049, for men IIEF-C p = 0.0007, IIEF-D p = 0.001, IIEF-E p = 0.05; Figure 1). Among patients, no significant correlation was found between disease severity and relationship quality (DAS). For those treated with topical therapy, an inverse correlation was found between sexual discomfort and relationship quality (ISS-DAS, r = −0.68,p = 0.000006); for patients treated with oral/parenteral therapy, the main factor influencing the relationship quality was depression (ISS-HADS Depression, r = −0.5, p = 0.026). In women, SF (FSFI) did not correlate with any of the analysed variables. Our results confirm that UC patients have lower levels of sex life than controls. Well-being and couple cohesion was unaffected by the disease, even in case of topical therapy. Conversely, depression resulted to adversely impact the relationship quality In women, SF appears to be less affected by IBD-related factors