The following is a summary of “Incidence, Prevalence, and Racial and Ethnic Distribution of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the United States,” published in the November 2023 issue of Gastroenterology by Lewis, et al.

For a study, researchers sought to estimate the incidence, prevalence, and racial-ethnic distribution of physician-diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the United States.

They used data from four administrative claims datasets: a 20% random sample of national fee-for-service Medicare data from 2007 to 2017, Medicaid data from Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and California spanning 1999 to 2012, and commercial health insurance data from Anthem beneficiaries between 2006 and 2018 and Optum’s deidentified Clinformatics Data Mart from 2000 to 2017. The study employed validated combinations of medical diagnoses, diagnostic procedures, and prescription medications to identify incident and prevalent IBD diagnoses. Pooled age-, sex-, and race/ethnicity-specific insurance-weighted estimates were computed, as well as pooled estimates standardized to the 2018 United States Census, accompanied by 95% CIs.

The age- and sex-standardized incidence of IBD per 100,000 person-years was 10.9 (95% CI, 10.6–11.2). The incidence of IBD peaked during the third decade of life, decreased to a relatively stable level across the fourth to eighth decades, and then declined further. The age-, sex- and insurance-standardized prevalence of IBD was 721 per 100,000 population (95% CI, 717–726). Extrapolating to the 2020 United States Census, an estimated 2.39 million Americans were diagnosed with IBD. The prevalence of IBD per 100,000 population was 812 (95% CI, 802–823) in White, 504 (95% CI, 482–526) in Black, 403 (95% CI, 373–433) in Asian, and 458 (95% CI, 440–476) in Hispanic Americans.

The study found that IBD is diagnosed in more than 0.7% of Americans. Incidence is highest in early adulthood and remains relatively stable at a lower rate. The disease was less commonly diagnosed in Black, Asian, and Hispanic Americans.

Source: gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(23)04776-5/fulltext