Abstract
Crohn's disease is an intractable bowel disease with inflammation. We studied the cases of 69 patients with Crohn's disease and dwelled on the needs of social as well as moral support of them.Of the total number of patients, 79.7% was males. The mean age was 27.5 years. As regards their living conditions, 45% lived together with their family, and 53.3% of those aged 25 to 35 years were single. Moreover, 33.3% was in unstable employment conditions.
Through counseling services, it was found that Crohn's disease patients and their families were badly in need of pensions and benefits like those for physically handicapped persons. These occupied high places on the list of their wishes together with the alleviation of psychological hardship, about which 24.6% of the patients complained.
Inflammatory bowel disease patients are in an extremely disadvantageous position. Plagued with the symptoms and dietary restrictions, they have difficulties in getting married and standing on their own feet, which calls for the need to further improve the welfare system for the handicapped. Their problems have somehow been dealt withby family members in many cases, but with a rise in the incidence of this disease and the aging of the population, we feel our urgent task is to establish a public support system for the intractable disease patients.
