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Background: A demand exists for user-friendly patient-reported outcome measures for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The IBD-Control Questionnaire has been recently developed to assess overall disease control from the patient's view but has not been available in China. Methods: Translation and cultural adaption of the IBD-Control into Chinese was conducted through four steps (forward translation, backward translation, expert panel, and pilot testing). Afterwards, a prospective validation study was conducted from February 2022 to February 2023. The translated IBD-Control, Short Health Scale, EQ-5D-5L, and disease activity measurements using either the Physician Global Assessment and Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index or the Crohn's Disease Activity Index were used. Acceptability, test-retest reliability, internal consistency, content validity, convergent validity, structural validity, discriminant ability, and receiver operating characteristic curves were analyzed. Results: Questionnaires were completed by 150 participants with IBD (31 with Crohn's disease [CD] and 119 with ulcerative colitis [UC]). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.823 for the IBD-Control-8 scale. The correlations between individual item and total score varied from 0.485 to 0.892 among CD patients and from 0.588 to 0.712 among UC patients. The S-CVI/Ave was 0.98. Convergent validity analyses exhibited moderate to strong correlations between other measurements and IBD-Control-8-subscore (0.555–0.675) or IBD-Control VAS (0.503–0.671). Test-retest analysis showed that the mean scores were 75.23±17.33 versus 72.10±14.99 (r = 0.894, p<0.01) for VAS scores and 12.75±3.49versus 12.80±3.29 for IBD-Control-8 subscore (r = 0.963, p<0.01), respectively. The IBD-Control-8-subscore and IBD-Control-VAS exhibited significant discriminative capability among the PGA categories (ANOVA, p <.001). The ROC analysis revealed an optimal cut-off point for the IBD-Control-8 subscore of 14 points (sensitivity: 70.9%, specificity 83.5%), versus a cut-off of 70 on the IBD-Control VAS score (sensitivity: 84.4%, specificity 69.3%). Conclusion: The Chinese IBD-Control proves to be a disease-specific, reliable, and valid tool for revealing overall disease control from the patient's viewpoint. Both healthcare professionals and patients may find it to be a useful patient-reported outcome measurement for triaging IBD patients in China or complementing routine care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The redox balance in the intestine plays an important role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis, and it is closely related to the intestinal mucosal barrier, intestinal inflammation, and the gut microbiota. Current research on the treatment of ulcerative colitis has focused on immune disorders, excessive inflammation, and oxidative stress. However, an imbalance in intestinal redox reaction plays a particularly critical role. Hydrogen is produced by some anaerobic bacteria via hydrogenases in the intestine. Increasing evidence suggests that hydrogen, as an inert gas, is crucial for immunity, inflammation, and oxidative stress and plays a protective role in ulcerative colitis. Hydrogen maintains the redox state balance in the intestine in ulcerative colitis and reduces damage to intestinal epithelial cells by exerting its selective antioxidant ability. Hydrogen also regulates the intestinal flora, reduces the harmful effects of bacteria on the intestinal epithelial barrier, promotes the restoration of normal anaerobic bacteria in the intestines, and ultimately improves the integrity of the intestinal epithelial barrier. The present review focuses on the therapeutic mechanisms of hydrogen-targeting ulcerative colitis. Plain Language Summary: The balance of oxidation-reduction is crucial for maintaining the overall health of the intestines. However, disruption of this equilibrium leads to the development of various diseases, such as ulcerative colitis. Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that is characterized by inflammation and ulcers in the lining of the colon and rectum. Abnormal oxidative stress in ulcerative colitis leads to the excessive activation of immune cells, heightened inflammation, and imbalance of gut microbiota, which accelerates the development of this disease. Hydrogen gas is a reducing gas that is produced by bacteria in the intestine or administered exogenously. It has an important selective antioxidant role and alleviates ulcerative colitis without interfering with normal physiological processes. The present article summarizes the direct and indirect effects of hydrogen gas on ulcerative colitis by analyzing the relevant literature, which indicates that hydrogen gas is a potential molecular drug for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]