Increasing incidence of Crohn's disease in Victorian children

Background: The incidence of Crohn's disease has been increasing in Western communities, but there are no published studies which have examined this change in children in Australia. The centralization of pediatric gastroenterology services in Victoria provides an opportunity to examine these changes within one state. Methods: We undertook a retrospective study over a 31‐year period of all children aged 16 years or less initially diagnosed with Crohn's disease at either the Royal Children's Hospital, or Monash Medical Center, Melbourne, Victoria. Results: We identified 351 patients who met the diagnostic criteria between 1971 and 2001. The incidence of Crohn's disease in children aged 16 years or less rose from 0.128 to 2.0 per 100 000 per year over the three decades (r = 0.964, P