title: Incidence and prevalence of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease in urban and rural areas of Spain from 1981 to 1988.
abstract: We retrospectively investigated the annual incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from 1981 to 1988 in an urban and a rural area of central Spain. Two hundred and eighty-one patients presented with IBD; 193 ulcerative colitis (UC) and 88 Crohn's disease (CD) (prevalence 43.4/100,000 and 19.8/100,000, respectively). Of these patients, 168 were diagnosed for the first time during the study period. One hundred and eleven UC and 57 CD (incidence 3.16/100,000 and 1.61/100,000 respectively). Within the urban area, the UC incidence was 3.15/100,000 and the CD 1.87/100,000. In the rural area, the incidence for the UC was 3.25/100,000 and 0.86/100,000 for the CD. No sex differences were found. The incidence rates have increased significantly (p < 0.05) for CD in the study period. However, for UC rates did not change. During 1986-1988, the patient's age at the time of diagnosis was significantly lower than that of 1981-1983 (p < 0.05).
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Hospital de la Princesa, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maté-Jimenez
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vicent
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Pajares
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data