Find organisations and helplines in your country:

wPCDAI Calculator

A shorter, reweighted version of the PCDAI that many children’s inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) teams use, without the height, haematocrit or tummy examination items.

The weighted Paediatric Crohn’s Disease Activity Index (wPCDAI) is a version of the PCDAI published in 2012. Its authors dropped the items that added least (haematocrit, growth in height and the tummy examination) and reweighted the rest, so it is quicker to complete. It scores from 0 to 125.

A parent or the young person can answer most of it: the last week’s tummy pain, stools (poos), how they are coping, weight and other symptoms, plus ESR and albumin from a recent blood test. Only the check around the anus comes from your child’s IBD team. Some funding rules ask for the full PCDAI instead, so check which score your child’s team needs.

Work out your wPCDAI score

Your country (sets the lab units and the medicines rules shown below)

Abdominal (tummy) pain in the last week

None (0 points) Mild: short spells that don’t get in the way of daily activities (10 points) Moderate or severe: daily, longer lasting, getting in the way of activities, or at night (20 points)

How your child has been coping with daily life in the last week

No limits on activities, well (0 points) Occasional difficulty keeping up with age-appropriate activities, below par (10 points) Often limited in activities, very unwell (20 points)

Stools (poos) in a day, over the last week

0 to 1 liquid stools, no blood (0 points) Up to 2 semi-formed with a little blood, or 2 to 5 liquid (7.5 points) Obvious bleeding, 6 or more liquid stools, or diarrhoea at night (15 points)

ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate), from a blood test in the last week

Result

Also called the sed rate or sedimentation rate. In mm/h (sometimes printed mm/hr or mm in the first hour), as printed on your report.

Points for each result
Everyone	under 20: 0 points; 20 to 50: 7.5 points; over 50: 15 points

Figures are in mm/h.

Albumin, from a blood test in the last week

Result

It may be printed as Alb, ALB or serum albumin, usually with the liver function tests (LFTs) or other chemistry results (in the US, the comprehensive metabolic panel). Type it as it’s printed on your report: 35 (g/L) and 3.5 (g/dL) both work.

Points for each result
Everyone	3.5 or more: 0 points; over 3 to under 3.5: 10 points; 3 or less: 20 points

Figures are in g/dL. For a result in g/L, divide by 10 (35 g/L is 3.5 g/dL).

Weight

Gaining weight, or keeping weight steady or losing it on purpose (0 points) Weight has stayed the same without trying to, or lost 1 to 9% without trying (5 points) Lost 10% or more without trying (10 points)

Around the anus (perianal area), checked by the doctor From your IBD team: leave it blank if you don’t know

Nothing, or skin tags that cause no symptoms (0 points) 1 or 2 fistulas or fissures with little discharge and no tenderness (7.5 points) An active fistula, discharge, tenderness or an abscess (15 points)

Other symptoms outside the gut in the last week: fever of 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) or more for 3 days, arthritis, eye inflammation (uveitis), erythema nodosum or pyoderma gangrenosum

None (0 points) One or more (10 points)

Allow saving on this device

Off unless you tick it. Once ticked, this tool keeps the answers on this page as you type, and “Save this result” keeps a dated copy in Saved results. Everything stays in this browser on this device (another browser shows nothing) and is never sent online. Anyone using this browser could see it unless you lock it. Unticking deletes everything saved for this tool.

How the wPCDAI score is used where you live

Australia

Your child’s IBD team may use the wPCDAI, or the full PCDAI, to track how active Crohn’s disease is. When a specialist applies for some subsidised Crohn’s medicines for children, the PBS (Australia’s medicines subsidy scheme) asks for the full PCDAI. See the PCDAI calculator.

Canada

In Canada, provincial drug plans and private insurers set their own rules for some Crohn’s medicines, and some of them ask your child’s specialist for a disease activity score. Your child’s IBD team may use the wPCDAI, or the full PCDAI, to track how active Crohn’s disease is.

New Zealand

Your child’s IBD team may use the wPCDAI, or the full PCDAI, to track how active Crohn’s disease is. Pharmac, the government agency that decides which medicines are funded in New Zealand, asks for the full PCDAI on one of its Special Authority forms, for example. See the PCDAI calculator.

United Kingdom

Your child’s IBD team may use the wPCDAI, or the full PCDAI, to track how active Crohn’s disease is. Medicines funding rules that ask for a score say which one they need.

United States

In the US, health insurers set their own rules for approving some Crohn’s medicines, and some ask your child’s doctor for a disease activity score. Your child’s IBD team may use the wPCDAI, or the full PCDAI, to track how active Crohn’s disease is.

Somewhere else