A large population-based study reports the epidemiologic trends of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in UK primary care. The findings were published in the journal BMJ Open.
A cohort study analysed 11,325,025 individuals registered with general practices in the IQVIA Medical Research data primary care database.
Crude incidence rates for overall IBD, Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) were 28.6 (95% CI, 28.2-28.9), 10.2 (95% CI, 10.0-10.5) and 15.7 (95% CI, 15.4-15.9) per 100 000 person-years, respectively. Between 2000 and 2017, the incidence of IBD did not change significantly for adults aged 17-40 years and children aged 0-9 years. For adults aged >40 years, IBD incidence fell by an average 2.3 per cent per year (P < .0001), whereas for adolescents aged 10-16 years, it increased by an average 3.0 per cent per year (P < .0001).
As of 31 December 2018, the point prevalence estimates for overall IBD, CD and UC were 725, 276 and 397 per 100,000 individuals, respectively.
The authors said: "We report rising incidence rates of IBD in younger populations and falling incidence in older age groups. Thus, not only will services need to be attuned to rising IBD prevalence and an ageing demographic, but also to increasing numbers of new diagnoses in young people who will require lifelong care."
BMJ Open. Published July 19, 2020. Full text
This article originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
