Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – primarily Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis – is a debilitating lifelong condition with significant health and economic costs. From diagnosis to management, IBD can cause huge psychosocial concerns to patients and their caregivers. This study reports an experience of a Crohn’s patient, leading to the formation of the first IBD patient support group in Singapore and how this group has evolved in the last 4 years in supporting other IBD patients. IBD patient advocacy and/or support groups facilitate open conversations on patients’ fears, concerns, preferences and needs, and may potentially improve disease knowledge and quality of life for individuals with the condition or their families.

Interestingly, epidemiological studies also revealed that children of parents that had migrated from region with low IBD prevalence in Asia, and currently residing in developed countries, exhibit similar high incidence of IBD compared to offspring of non-immigrants, suggesting how disease risk could be more influence by earlier life exposure to environmental antigens. 6 Over the past two decades, while IBD case in Asia, including Singapore, has risen significantly, it is still considered relatively lower compared to Western countries, and therefore sometimes misdiagnosed as gastrointestinal tuberculosis or irritable bowel syndrome leading to delay in treatment. The Asia-Pacific Crohn' s and Colitis Epidemiology Study is a collaboration project between 11 countries across Asia and Australia, focusing on research of IBD in Asia-Pacific, and they have reported an incidence of IBD in Asia to be 0.5-3 per 100,000 individuals, in which early course disease progression was comparable between the East and West. [7][8][9] The same study also reported that few patients with early-stage UC undergo surgery in Asia, where as CD patients frequently progress to complicated disease and have accelerated use of immunosuppressants. Asian IBD patients might also exhibit slightly different clinical phenotype, as compared to Western patients, includ-