title: Comparison of demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with early vs. adult vs. late onset ulcerative colitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is limited data comparing influence of age on the presentation, clinical course, and therapeutic response of patients with ulcerative colitis. We aimed to compare the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with UC in older age vs. adulthood vs. early age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five-hundred sixty one patients with UC seen at our center from 1995 to 2011 were categorized into early onset (EO), adult onset (AO) and late onset (LO) due to age at date of initial diagnosis. Patients diagnosed younger than age 17 were defined as EO, while those diagnosed between 17 and 60 were defined as AO and older than age 60 as LO. All patients were analyzed for demographic and clinical characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a male predominancy among LO patients (50% vs. 57.7% vs. 78.6%, p=0.004). Patients with EO UC were more likely to be non-smokers (p<0.001), and had higher family history of UC (p=0.02). Patients with EO UC had more steroid use (p=0.03), total colectomy (p=0.04), presence of chronic active disease (p=0.04) rates when compared with AO and LO groups. Patients in EO group had higher overall probability of surgery in 1, 5 and 10 years, when compared with patients in LO group (p=0.02), but it wasn't different between EO and AO groups (p=0.09).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed that clinical course of UC was more aggressive in younger ages. Also the difference between the demographic characteristics suggests that different age groups have different risk factors for the disease development.
authors: Gastroenterology Department, Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. drismailster@gmail.com
authors: Ismail Hakkı
authors: IH
authors: Kalkan
authors: Ulkü
authors: U
authors: Dağli
authors: Erkin
authors: E
authors: Oztaş
authors: Bilge
authors: B
authors: Tunç
authors: Aysel
authors: A
authors: Ulker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D003082:Colectomy / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D062072:Patient Acuity; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D063189:Symptom Assessment / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids