Incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease in children in South-Western Sweden

Abstract

Hildebrand H, Brydolf M, Holmquist L, Krantz I, Kristiansson B. Incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease in children in South‐Western Sweden Acta PEdiatr 1994;83:640–5. Stockholm. ISSN 0803–5253 The incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease were estimated in all children less than 16 years of age living in the city of Göteborg and in three counties in South‐Western Sweden, from 1983 to 1987. One hundred and thirty‐two patients were classified according to set criteria into one of four diagnostic categories: ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, probable Crohn's disease and indeterminate colitis. The crude incidence of inflammatory bowel disease was 5.3 per 100 000 children per year and the prevalence 21.5 per 100000 children. This study lends support to the hypothesis that Crohn's disease has increased among Swedish children. Crohn's disease now appears to be at least as common as ulcerative colitis. Thirty‐five of 55 patients first classified as indeterminate colitis or probable Crohn's disease later fulfilled the criteria of ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease during a mean follow‐up period of 4.6 years. This study emphasizes the importance, in epidemiological studies of inflammatory bowel disease, of inciuding those cases where a definite diagnosis of ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease cannot be established initially and of re‐evaluating the initial diagnosis regularly.

The natural course of inflammatory bowel disease-indeterminate from childhood to adulthood: within a 25 year period

“…Our findings have shown that IBD-indeterminate has a distinctive clinical pattern of IBD in children with a higher prevalence than that reported in adults 9,10. Only a small number of the studied IBD-indeterminate children were reclassified to either CD or UC, similar to what has been reported by Lindberg and coworkers11 in a Swedish based population study of children with indeterminate colitis (IC).…”

Indeterminate colitis: A significant subgroup of pediatric IBD

“…In this study, we have shown IC to be a clinically distinct subgroup of pediatric patients with IBD with a higher prevalence than that reported in adults 13,14. Although 34% of the original IC group was reclassified to either CD or UC, most were reclassified after <2 years of follow‐up.…”

Epidemiology of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease: A systematic review of international trends

“…A total of 2209 references were reviewed, resulting in 139 included studies7–145 from 32 countries (Fig. 1).…”