Gender differences in presentation and course of disease in pediatric patients with Crohn disease.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to determine gender differences in pediatric patients with Crohn disease.


METHODS
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 989 consecutive pediatric patients (566 boys, 423 girls) who had Crohn disease (aged 0 to 17 years at diagnosis) by using the Pediatric IBD Consortium Registry. Uniform data were analyzed to compare the presentation and course of disease according to gender.


RESULTS
Median follow-up time was 2.8 years. Mean +/- SD age at diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (11.5 +/- 3.8 years) did not differ by gender. Compared with boys, girls had a higher prevalence of mouth sores at symptom onset and a higher prevalence of hypoalbuminemia at the time of diagnosis. Location of disease did not differ by gender. A higher proportion of girls had abnormal anti-outer membrane porin of Escherichia coli levels compared with boys. Girls were at increased risk for erythema nodosum/pyoderma gangrenosum and decreased risk for growth failure compared with boys.


CONCLUSIONS
Girls appear to have an overall more severe course of disease; however, boys are at increased risk for developing growth failure. Disease course and the impact of disease severity on growth according to gender in pediatric Crohn disease require prospective study.
University of California, Department of Pediatrics, 500 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143-0136, USA.
Neera
N
Gupta
Alan G
AG
Bostrom
Barbara S
BS
Kirschner
George D
GD
Ferry
Harland S
HS
Winter
Robert N
RN
Baldassano
Benjamin D
BD
Gold
Oren
O
Abramson
Terry
T
Smith
Stanley A
SA
Cohen
Melvin B
MB
Heyman
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012727:Sex Characteristics