Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:

The Nationwide Inpatient Sample of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) was used to study the recent demographic characteristics of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC).

METHODS:

HCUP data of the period 1997-2006 were extracted. The data were stratified by the categories pertaining to patient demographics, such as age-group, sex, race, insurance type, income group, residence in metropolitan area and region of the United States, as well as categories pertaining to hospital characteristics, such as type of ownership, teaching status, location, and bed-size. The distributions of inpatients among different categories were compared between CD or UC and all other diagnoses, using odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals for comparison.

RESULTS:

The data revealed a slight female predominance in CD (1.08, 1.09-1.09) and a slight male predominance in UC (1.15, 1.14-1.15). Compared to patients with other diagnoses, patients with inflammatory bowel disease tended to be white (CD: 2.47, 2.45-2.50; UC: 2.13, 2.10-2.15), more affluent (CD: 1.44, 1.43-1.45; UC: 1.59, 1.58-1.61), live in metropolitan areas (CD: 1.09, 1.08-1.10; UC: 1.26, 1.25-1.27) and in the Northeast of the United States (CD: 1.27, 1.27-1.28; UC: 1.44, 1.43-1.45).

CONCLUSIONS:

These patterns confirm previously described characteristics of patients with inflammatory bowel disease and show that such characteristics still apply to present patient populations.