{"doi":"10.1093/ibd/izae279","title":"Gender and Sex Differences in Abdominal Pain, Fatigue, And Psychological Symptoms Among Adults with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Network Analysis","abstract":"BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) experience a high symptom burden, including abdominal pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances; yet, little is known regarding the relationship between sex and gender on symptoms. We sought to report symptom severity for cisgender men, cisgender women, and transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals. In addition, we used network analysis to identify core symptoms and explore if symptoms and their relationships differ between cisgender men and cisgender women. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. We recruited adults with IBD online through ResearchMatch. Individuals responded to Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information symptom questionnaires, as well as demographic and clinical questionnaires. Network analysis was used to identify the core symptoms driving the symptom structure. RESULTS: One-hundred and fifty-seven (63.3%) participants identified as cisgender women, 84 (33.9%) as cisgender men, and 7 (2.8%) as TGD. Cisgender men (M = 61.8) and TGD (M = 61.3) groups reported higher abdominal pain levels compared with cisgender women (M = 57.8; P = .02). Transgender and gender-diverse individuals reported higher depression levels (M = 64.8) compared with cisgender men (M = 56.7) and cisgender women (M = 54.4; P = .01). Using a network analysis approach, anxiety and fatigue emerged as core symptoms for the entire sample (clinically active and inactive disease), and among only those with active clinical disease. Fatigue was a top core symptom for cisgender women; anxiety emerged as a top core symptom for cisgender men. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights that fatigue and anxiety are core symptoms among individuals with IBD and demonstrates a potential sex and/or gender difference in core symptoms. Replication of this study is needed with further consideration of inclusion of TGD patients.","journal":"Inflammatory Bowel Diseases","year":2024,"id":446138,"datarank":0.32958368660043297,"base_score":2.1972245773362196,"endowment":2.1972245773362196,"self_citation_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9587,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":762994,"name":"Pei-Lin Yang","orcid":"0000-0002-2500-2411","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1262955,"name":"Chi-Shan Tsai","orcid":"0000-0002-1639-5014","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":305894,"name":"Xiaoyu Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-2555-0311","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1098723,"name":"Linda Yoo","orcid":"0000-0003-1476-9999","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":786764,"name":"Molly R. Altman","orcid":"0000-0002-0453-0469","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":378779,"name":"Margaret Heitkemper","orcid":"0000-0002-2938-1842","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":783978,"name":"Samantha Conley","orcid":"0000-0002-4501-5244","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235303,"name":"Sunanda V. Kane","orcid":"0000-0002-6410-4242","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1098724,"name":"Samantha Winders","orcid":"0000-0001-9433-0198","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":691344,"name":"Kendra Kamp","orcid":"0000-0002-7753-3564","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":42,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:01:50.465308Z","pmid":"39671570","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}