Lilly Pharma releases their new survey which 8 in 10 Americans with ulcerative colitis struggle to find a public restroom during emergencies

Lilly release their new results from the national “Urgent Conversations” survey which found that over half of the general population struggle to find a public restroom, a challenge that is even more pronounced for people with ulcerative colitis. This survey, of 1,800 U.S. adults, including 200 people with moderately to severely active UC, assessed the availability and accessibility of public restrooms.

UC is a chronic, inflammatory disease that affects the colon and rectum of the gastrointestinal tract and is associated with increased stool frequency, rectal bleeding and bowel urgency. Bowel urgency, the sudden and immediate need to have a bowel movement, is one of the most difficult symptoms for many people with UC.

“People living with UC not only experience a significant need for access to public restrooms, they may also be altering their daily routines in order to leave their homes, as demonstrated by these results,” said Richard E. Moses, D.O., J.D., associate vice president global and U.S. medical affairs, immunology and gastroenterology indication lead, Lilly. “Acknowledging and shedding light on these life challenges motivates us at Lilly to support individuals experiencing bowel urgency-related emergencies and recognize the importance of urgency symptoms when developing advanced biologics.”

The results showed:

• People with UC need a public restroom significantly more often and finding an available restroom can be challenging. In this survey, 63% of respondents with UC vs. 38% of the general population noted they had to use the restroom frequently or every time they leave the house. The vast majority of respondents said it takes longer than 5 minutes to find a clean restroom (81% of people with UC and 73% of the general population).
• Nearly all respondents (86%) said the lack of public restrooms is a problem, with 43% of all respondents describing this as a “big problem” or “very big problem.” Even in areas most densely populated with public restrooms, roughly one-half of the general population noted there were too few public restrooms available.
• People with UC are at least three times (42% to 13%) more likely to have a restroom emergency compared to people without UC, with more than three-quarters of respondents with UC (77%) noting they had an accident as an adult.
• Notably, restroom emergencies and close calls are not unique to people with UC. More than one-third (39%) of the general population responded they had a restroom emergency that required finding a restroom immediately as an adult and nearly all the general population (89%) said they experienced a close call where they had found a restroom “just in time.”
• People with UC limit social outings due to the lack of public restrooms. Approximately two-thirds of respondents with UC have limited social outings or going to public places they have never been in case they need to use a restroom (61% and 60%, respectively). More than two-thirds (79%) of respondents with UC said they make sure they know where the nearest public restroom is and have their toiletries before leaving the house.

“These results reinforce what I hear from my patients with UC. Instead of double-checking they’ve turned off the stove prior to leaving their homes, people with UC are mapping out the nearest restrooms and packing emergency toiletries,” said Marla Dubinsky, M.D., chief, division of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition, co-director, Susan and Leonard Feinstein IBD Clinical Center, Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai New York. “Many are staying home to avoid the potential for a bowel-urgency related accident in public.

“For people with UC, the minutes it takes to find a public restroom are consequential. This problem also extends to people who are not living with UC. In fact, 39% of the general population surveyed had experienced an accident as an adult and that number nearly doubled for respondents with UC,” said Michael Osso, president and chief executive officer, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. “These results show that access to clean and readily available restrooms is not just a convenience, but a basic human need worth greater attention and advocacy.”

 

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