Research Paper: Quality-of-Life Research on the Internet: Feasibility and Potential Biases in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis

Objective: The World Wide Web (WWW) is a new communications medium that permits investigators to contact patients in nonmedical settings and study the effects of disease on quality of life through self-administered questionnaires. However, little is known about the feasibility and, what is more important, the validity of this approach. An on-line survey for patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and patients whose UC had been treated with surgical procedures was developed. To understand how patients on the WWW might differ from those in practice and the potential biases in conducting epidemiological research in volunteers recruited on the Internet, post-surgery patients who responded to the WWW survey were compared with those in a surgical practice. Setting: The Internet and private practice surgical clinic. Main outcomes: Scores from the Short form 36 (SF-36) Health Assessment Questionnaire and the Self-Administered Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ).

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