Reviewer's report
 Assessing Health-Related Quality Of Life In Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease, In Crete, Title:
Greece.
Authors:
Athanasios G Pallis (sebax@med.uoc.gr )
Ioannis G Vlachonikolis (socmed@edu.uch.gr )
Ioannis A Mouzas (mouzas@med.uoc.gr )
 1  13 Dec 2001 Version: Date:
 Dr maurice russel Reviewer:
 A paper whose findings are important to those with closely related research interests Level of interest:
 Accept after discretionary revisions Advice on publication:
This is an interesting paper on HRQoL in Greece. I have some comments to the authors. 
compulsory revisions 
1. Aim of the study was to assess HRQoL in a population of unselected Greek patients: please clarify in 
the methods the method used to guarantee that these patients were unselected, I can not make this up 
from the methods. Looking at the male to female ratio the rates are different compared to publications from this area in Greece and I think this needs some explanation. 
2. Furthermore also variables influencing HRQoL were studied which should be mentioned in the 
methods. 
3. Methods Questionnaires: it should be explicitly mentioned how the diverse forms were used: 
interviewer, who was the interviewer (treating physician/nurse/ .... or whether it was a postal questionnaire in some or all patients. 
4. Disease activity: how was it decided to use these cut off points for severe symptoms and no or minor 
symptoms. 
Results: 
5. There is quite some overlap between tables and text which could be avoided. 
6. I would leave out on page 8 the line starting with "It would be interesting if we would.." which fits 
better in the discussion. 
7. Table 5 also fits better in the part discussion, explain here whether statistics are used to back up your
statement that comparison between the De Boer Study and yours yielded highly significant differences 
(any statistics done?). Probably no statistics needed here and avoid the word significance here. 
8. Discussion: 
Bottom line page 11 leave out "and" 
discretionary revisions: 
9.I would suggest to leave out table 6 and the part on Fishers linear discriminant function at the end of 
the results section. 
10. Page 12 Smoking has a negative impact in CD on disease activity whereas this effect might be 
opposite in UC, this could mean that influences on QoL are found because of the effect of smoking on disease activity. This aspect might be added to the discussion. 
11. The conclusion: IBD has a negative impact on HRQoL of Greek patients is probably true but there is
no golden standard. I would conclude that a higher disease activity has a negative impact on HRQoL 
which was shown in this study. 
12. Table 1 duration of IBD include sd 
Competing interests:
None declared.
Reviewer's report
 Assessing Health-Related Quality Of Life In Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease, In Crete, Title:
Greece.
Authors:
Athanasios G Pallis (sebax@med.uoc.gr )
Ioannis G Vlachonikolis (socmed@edu.uch.gr )
Ioannis A Mouzas (mouzas@med.uoc.gr )
 1  13 Dec 2001 Version: Date:
 Dr maurice russel Reviewer:
 A paper whose findings are important to those with closely related research interests Level of interest:
 Accept after discretionary revisions Advice on publication:
This is an interesting paper on HRQoL in Greece. I have some comments to the authors. 
compulsory revisions 
1. Aim of the study was to assess HRQoL in a population of unselected Greek patients: please clarify in 
the methods the method used to guarantee that these patients were unselected, I can not make this up 
from the methods. Looking at the male to female ratio the rates are different compared to publications from this area in Greece and I think this needs some explanation. 
2. Furthermore also variables influencing HRQoL were studied which should be mentioned in the 
methods. 
3. Methods Questionnaires: it should be explicitly mentioned how the diverse forms were used: 
interviewer, who was the interviewer (treating physician/nurse/ .... or whether it was a postal questionnaire in some or all patients. 
4. Disease activity: how was it decided to use these cut off points for severe symptoms and no or minor 
symptoms. 
Results: 
5. There is quite some overlap between tables and text which could be avoided. 
6. I would leave out on page 8 the line starting with "It would be interesting if we would.." which fits 
better in the discussion. 
7. Table 5 also fits better in the part discussion, explain here whether statistics are used to back up your
statement that comparison between the De Boer Study and yours yielded highly significant differences 
(any statistics done?). Probably no statistics needed here and avoid the word significance here. 
8. Discussion: 
Bottom line page 11 leave out "and" 
discretionary revisions: 
9.I would suggest to leave out table 6 and the part on Fishers linear discriminant function at the end of 
the results section. 
10. Page 12 Smoking has a negative impact in CD on disease activity whereas this effect might be 
opposite in UC, this could mean that influences on QoL are found because of the effect of smoking on disease activity. This aspect might be added to the discussion. 
11. The conclusion: IBD has a negative impact on HRQoL of Greek patients is probably true but there is
no golden standard. I would conclude that a higher disease activity has a negative impact on HRQoL 
which was shown in this study. 
12. Table 1 duration of IBD include sd 
Competing interests:
None declared.
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
 Assessing Health-Related Quality Of Life In Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease, In Crete, Title:
Greece.
Authors:
Athanasios G Pallis (sebax@med.uoc.gr )
Ioannis G Vlachonikolis (socmed@edu.uch.gr )
Ioannis A Mouzas (mouzas@med.uoc.gr )
 1  13 Dec 2001 Version: Date:
 Dr maurice russel Reviewer:
 A paper whose findings are important to those with closely related research interests Level of interest:
 Accept after discretionary revisions Advice on publication:
This is an interesting paper on HRQoL in Greece. I have some comments to the authors. 
compulsory revisions 
1. Aim of the study was to assess HRQoL in a population of unselected Greek patients: please clarify in 
the methods the method used to guarantee that these patients were unselected, I can not make this up 
from the methods. Looking at the male to female ratio the rates are different compared to publications from this area in Greece and I think this needs some explanation. 
2. Furthermore also variables influencing HRQoL were studied which should be mentioned in the 
methods. 
3. Methods Questionnaires: it should be explicitly mentioned how the diverse forms were used: 
interviewer, who was the interviewer (treating physician/nurse/ .... or whether it was a postal questionnaire in some or all patients. 
4. Disease activity: how was it decided to use these cut off points for severe symptoms and no or minor 
symptoms. 
Results: 
5. There is quite some overlap between tables and text which could be avoided. 
6. I would leave out on page 8 the line starting with "It would be interesting if we would.." which fits 
better in the discussion. 
7. Table 5 also fits better in the part discussion, explain here whether statistics are used to back up your
statement that comparison between the De Boer Study and yours yielded highly significant differences 
(any statistics done?). Probably no statistics needed here and avoid the word significance here. 
8. Discussion: 
Bottom line page 11 leave out "and" 
discretionary revisions: 
9.I would suggest to leave out table 6 and the part on Fishers linear discriminant function at the end of 
the results section. 
10. Page 12 Smoking has a negative impact in CD on disease activity whereas this effect might be 
opposite in UC, this could mean that influences on QoL are found because of the effect of smoking on disease activity. This aspect might be added to the discussion. 
11. The conclusion: IBD has a negative impact on HRQoL of Greek patients is probably true but there is
no golden standard. I would conclude that a higher disease activity has a negative impact on HRQoL 
which was shown in this study. 
12. Table 1 duration of IBD include sd 
Competing interests:
None declared.
assistant