Demographic characteristics of hospitalized IBD patients.
OBJECTIVE
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.
Sonnenberg
Amnon
A
Portland VA Medical Center, Oregon Health & Science University, P3-GI, 3710 SW US Veterans Hospital Road, Portland, OR 97239, USA. sonnenbe@ohsu.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016270:United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; D055815:Young Adult