Epidemiology of inflammatory bowel diseases in the elderly in the province of Liege -: A three-year prospective study

Objective - Inflammatory bowel diseases OD) are heterogeneous diseases which affect preferentially young adults. The late onset could resent a particular form of expression of these diseases. The aim of our prospective study was to describe the incidence of IBD in patients older than 60 ears as well as their clinical pattern in comparison with a population younger than 60. Methods - A standardized questionnaire for each new case diagnosed in the province of Liege between 01/06/1993 and 31/05/1996 was completed. Results - During the three years, 270 patients were enrolled. In group IBD > 60 years old, there were 60 new cases, including 23 cases with Crohn's disease (CD) (38%), 30 with ulcerative colitis (UC) (50%), and 7 with undetermined colitis (IC) (12%). The proportion of CD was significantly lower in the group BD > 60 years old than in the group < 60 (114 CD (54%), 81 UC (39%) and 15 IC (7%); P = 0.04), The annual incidence tended to be higher for UC than for CD in group IBD > 60 (45 and 3.5 per 100,000, respectively) while it was the contrary in younger patients (3.4 and 4.8 per 100,000, respectively). There was no striking difference in the clinical features for both diseases in the two groups, except more frequent diarrhea, weight loss and extraintestinal symptoms in CD patients < 60 years aid. Conclusions - In the province of Liege, the incidence of IBD in people older than 60 years is high. IBD in the elderly is characterized by a lower proportion of CD than in the younger population. Clinical features tend to be the Some whatever the age at diagnosis for each disease.