A Vall d'Hebron project receives the N-ECCO grant awarded by the European Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis Organization

The European Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis Organization (ECCO) has awarded the N-ECCO grant to a research led by Zahira Perez, nurse at the Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis Unit (UACC) of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and researcher of the multidisciplinary research group of Nursing of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). The project will look for potential factors that alter sexual function in people diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease.

ECCO is a non-profit association focused on Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) in Europe. It currently has more than 4,100 scientists and 20 partner organizations. In addition, since 2017, it awards the N-ECCO grants, valued at €20,000, with the aim of promoting international research projects led by expert nurses. This year's award ceremony took place during the annual congress held in Copenhagen between the 1st and 4th March.

IBD currently affects more than 5 million people worldwide and has an increasing incidence, especially among young people. This age group usually coincides with the peak of reproductive age and life stages such as finding a partner, marriage, birth or parenthood. In this profile of young adults, sexuality and intimate relationships are aspects that have a significant impact on their quality of life.

This study on sexual well-being and quality of life in people diagnosed with IBD is part of the growing need to address issues related to sexual health with healthcare professionals. In this context, when analysing the different stages of sexual function, orgasm, and sexual desire stand out as the phases most prone to suffer major alterations.

For this reason, the aim of this project is to study the prevalence and tendency of factors that may alter the sexual function of people with Crohn or Ulcerative Colitis's disease in comparison with the population without this diagnosis. Within this analysis, we will differentiate the study of individual and partner sexual desire as well as its possible correlations with anxiety and depression, disease activity as well as quality of life. The data obtained from this population will be compared with healthy controls of the same age and gender.

Nurse Zahira Perez hopes, with the development of this project: "to be able to promote the early detection of sexual dysfunctions and to encourage the inclusion of psychoeducational interventions to the attention of the sexual sphere".