Evaluation of the adherence of patients with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases to a PRO telemonitoring using connected devices: a prospective monocentric study

Background and study aims: Monitoring the symptoms of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) patients is now frequently made in the form of patient reported outcomes (PRO), rather than historical clinical activity scores. Unlike several chronic diseases, the role of telemonitoring in IBD has not yet been defined, particularly in terms of patient compliance with remote monitoring; the aim of our study was to assess patient compliance with digital monitoring of PRO as part of routine medical follow-up.

Patients and methods: we performed a monocentric prospective study in the Gastroenterology Unit of Liège’s University Hospital between May 2023 and February 2024. Adherence was considered optimal if 50% of the recordings planned for the duration of the follow-up were carried out.

Results: 31% of the patients included achieved at least 50% total encoding of their PRO over the 9 months of follow-up. The main cause of failure cited by patients was technical difficulties, well ahead of poor motivation. The overall satisfaction of practitioners and patients was generally good. Male gender was the only factor associated with adherence.

Conclusion: Overall adherence to PRO telemonitoring in IBD was around 40% and was mainly impaired by technical difficulties. Despite this, both patients and healthcare professionals found this type of monitoring relevant.

Keywords: inflammatory bowel disease, patient reported outcomes, remote monitoring.