Incidence Trends and Geographical Variability of Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Slovenia: A Nationwide Study

Abstract

Background. The aims of the study were to determine the incidence rate of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD) and its trends for the period of 2002–2010 and to assess the geographical distribution of PIBD in Slovenia. Materials and Methods. Medical records of patients (0–18 years) with newly diagnosed IBD during the study period were retrospectively reviewed. Results. The mean incidence rate for IBD in 2002–2010 was 7.6 per 100,000 children and adolescents per year, 4.5 for Crohn's disease (CD), 2.9 for ulcerative colitis (UC), and 0.2 for IBD-unclassified, respectively. The incidence rate increased from 5.8 per 100,000 per year in 2002–2004 to 8.6 in 2005–2007 and remained stable afterwards. Statistically significant difference in the incidence rate between the Northeastern and Southwestern parts of the country was observed (p = 0.025). Conclusion. This nationwide study demonstrates that Slovenia is among the European countries with the highest PIBD incidence. During the study period a substantial rise of PIBD incidence was observed during the first half of the study and it seems to have stabilized in the second half. The significant difference in PIBD incidence between Northeastern and Southwestern parts of the country merits further exploration of the possible environmental factors.

Current global trends in the incidence of pediatric-onset inflammatory bowel disease

“…Of note the incidence of IBD-U was surprisingly high[ 67 ]. An increasing incidence of IBD has been reported in Hungary[ 46 , 141 , 142 ] comparable to the rate of Slovenia from 1994 to 2010[ 48 , 49 , 143 ]. One other publication[ 47 ] reported much higher rates in Croatia (2000-2004) compared to previous reports[ 144 , 145 ].…”

Incidence and Geographical Variability of Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Croatia: Data From the Croatian National Registry for Children With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

“…However, the aforementioned studies were carried at different times, lasted for various periods of time, and had variable upper age limit used to define pediatric-onset disease. According to our data, the incidence of PIBD in Croatia is higher than in Italy, Spain, northern France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, 7,10,[28][29][30] slightly lower than in the neighboring Slovenia and Hungary, 14,31 and significantly lower than in other northern European countries such as Sweden and Norway. 27,32 Therefore, our results have added new insights to the global incidence map of PIBD.…”

“…8,9 Moreover, a decreasing north to south trend in the incidence has also been observed within the individual countries. 10-15 Furthermore, epidemiological studies are following changing trends in the incidence with regard to the type of the PIBD. For UC, in most countries the incidence is becoming stable (but not everywhere), while the same data for the CD in children are increasing, and therefore, the CD–UC ratio is higher in PIBD compared with that in the adult-onset disease.…”

Classification of gastrointestinal symptom patterns in young adults

“…Generally, emerging adults (age [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] are viewed as a physically healthy cohort [7] and consequently often overlooked in current GI health research. More recent epidemiological studies suggest that FGIDs are increasing in emerging adults [8][9][10]. As many as 65% of emerging adults are experiencing symptoms [11] and approximately one third are seeking medical care [12].…”