"Eetscore" in IBD

Background: Diet is of great importance for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). There is no specific diet with a proven beneficial effect on the course of the disease. However, the Dutch food-based dietary guidelines do most certainly apply to IBD patients. The "Eetscore" is an online tool to assess the extent to which someone eats and drinks according to these guidelines. Subsequently, the "Eetscore" gives practical advice based on the participants' results, to eat and drink healthier according to the Dutch dietary guidelines. To date, the "Eetscore" has not been used by patients with IBD.

Objectives: Our primary objective is to determine whether adherence to Dutch dietary guidelines is associated with quality of life in patients with IBD. Secondary objectives are to evaluate the adherence of IBD patients to Dutch dietary guidelines, whether use of the "Eetscore" leads to an improvement in adherence to Dutch dietary guidelines, whether use of the "Eetscore" leads to an improvement in quality of life and a decrease in clinical disease activity, to determine whether adherence to Dutch dietary guidelines is associated with clinical disease activity. We will also evaluate the opinion of IBD patients of the "Eetscore" tool.

Study design: Prospective cohort study without a control group.

Study population: Adult patients with IBD, who are treated in the gastroenterology department of Hospital Gelderse Vallei in Ede and the Rijnstate hospital in Arnhem. Patients with specific dietary advice (e.g. malnutrition), specific food allergies (e.g. peanut) and vegans are excluded.

Study procedure: Participants are invited times to use the "Eetscore": at the start of the study and after 1 and 4 months. The "Eetscore" consists of a digital questionnaire to assess the extent to which someones diet meets the Dutch dietary guidelines for 16 food components, including meat, vegetables, fruit and fish. Depending on the score of a participant, a participant will receive advice per food component with practical tips to work independently on a healthy diet.

We hypothesize that adherence to the Dutch dietary guidelines ("Eetscore") is associated with quality of life in patients with IBD.

Baseline, 1 month and 4 months