Epidemiological trend in inflammatory bowel disease in Taiwan from 2001 to 2015: a nationwide population-based study

Background/Aims: Incidences of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), ulcerative colitis (UC), and Crohn’s disease (CD), havebeen increasing in Asia. In this study, we report the relevant clinical characteristics and determined the epidemiological trend ofIBD in Taiwan from 2001 to 2015. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to analyze data recorded from January 2001through December 2015 in the registered database compiled by the National Health Insurance and provided by the Ministry ofHealth and Welfare, Taiwan. Results: A total of 3,806 patients with catastrophic IBD illness were registered from 2001 to 2015 inTaiwan (CD, 919; UC, 2,887). The crude incidence of CD increased from 0.17/100,000 in 2001 to 0.47/100,000 in 2015, whereasthat of UC increased from 0.54/100,000 in 2001 to 0.95/100,000 in 2015. The prevalence of CD increased from 0.6/100,000 in2001 to 3.9/100,000 in 2015, whereas that of UC increased from 2.1/100,000 in 2001 to 12.8/100,000 in 2015. The male-to-femaleratio in the study sample was 2.19 for CD and 1.62 for UC. The median age of those registered with CD was lower than that ofthose registered for UC: 38.86 and 44.86 years, respectively. A significantly greater increase in CD incidence rate was identifiedamong 20 to 39-year-old compared with other age groups. Conclusions: Using Taiwan’s nationwide insurance database, we determinedthat the number of patients with CD increased more rapidly during the study period than the number of patients withUC, especially among age 20 to 39-year-old, resulting in a decreased UC-to-CD ratio. (Intest Res 2019;17:54-62) KCI Citation Count: 1