Among adult patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease (CD), ustekinumab therapy improved health-related quality of life (HRQOL), a recent study found. Patients with moderately-to-severely active CD and inadequate response or intolerance to tumor necrosis factor antagonists (UNITI₁, n=741) or conventional therapy (UNITI₂, n=627) were randomized to placebo, ustekinumab 130 mg, or 6 mg/kg intravenous induction therapy. At week 8, ustekinumab-treated responders (IM-UNITI, n=388) with placebo, ustekinumab 90 mg q12w, or q8w for 44 additional weeks. Researchers found:

• Induction baseline mean values of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ), PCS, and MCS were similar across groups, but impaired relative to general population norms.
• At Week 8, ustekinumab induced greater improvement than placebo in both HRQOL scores.
• Significantly greater proportions of patients receiving ustekinumab 6 mg/kg or 130 mg had clinically-meaningful IBDQ improvement.
• They also had clinically-meaningful improvement s in PCA and MCS compared to placebo.
• At Week 44, these improvements were maintained with ustekinumab.