Bowel urgency is commonly defined as the sudden need to rush to the bathroom to empty one's bowel. In the field of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC)), bowel urgency is part of the top five research priorities for future IBD nursing research, and it is a symptom that patients consider to be most important when prioritizing their disease control. Urgency is a patient-reported outcome associated with compromised quality of life and future risk of hospitalizations, corticosteroids, and colectomy in patients with UC.

A meta-analysis of 321 studies examining bowel urgency revealed that only one-third of these clinical studies clearly defined the concept of bowel urgency. Definition of bowel urgency was heterogeneous as 14 different definitions were identified. In most of these studies, non-validated questionnaires were used. They are based on subjective responses of the patients, and they could determine evaluation bias. These data emphasize the lack of standardization in bowel urgency assessment.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Male or female, aged at least 18 years old
• Diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease according to the European Crohn´s and Colitis Organisation criteria for at least 3 months
• Person who has received full information about the organization of the research and who has not objected to his or her participation and to the use of his or her data
• Person affiliated to or beneficiary of a social security plan

Exclusion Criteria:

• Person unable to comply with study procedures

Inflammatory bowel disease patients