Daily Dose: Disparities in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

Last week, we reported on findings from a study published in Gastro Hep Advances that examined how race/ethnicity and immigration status influence inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) manifestations, treatments, and outcomes in a diverse, tertiary care, safety-net center in New York.

The study

Investigators reviewed records from all patients who underwent treatment for IBD at Belleview Hospital in New York City between 1997 and 2017, excluding any patients without a confirmed IBD diagnosis or with insufficient clinical data on IBD history or treatment. They compared disease onset, treatment, and outcomes by race (White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian) and immigration status (US-born vs foreign born).

The cohort comprised 577 patients, of whom 29.8% were White, 27.4% Hispanic, 21.7% Black, and 13.0% Asian.

The findings

Researchers found that compared to White participants, Black patients were more likely to have Crohn disease (CD) (odds ratio [OR] 1.75, 95% CI 1.10-2.77) and more likely to have IBD-related intestinal resections (OR 2.49, 95% CI 1.40- 4.50).

In addition, compared to US-born participants, results showed that foreign-born participants were more likely to be diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.04-3.02).

Authors' comment

"The differences in IBD behavior identified in our study supports the importance of developing a deeper understanding of the impact of race and immigration on IBD behavior given not only the rise of disease incidence worldwide, but also the increasing patient diversity within many IBD practices."

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