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Comparison of inflammatory bowel disease at younger and older age
1Medizinische Poliklinik, Standort- Innenstadt, Klinikum der Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, München, Germany.
Objective:
In a substantial number of patients inflammatory bowel disease develops past the age of 40 years. However, data about the clinical presentation and disease behaviour in this age group are scarce.
Methods:
The following parameters were evaluated retrospectively in 191 consecutive patients with inflammatory bowel disease: Gender, age at diagnosis, leading symptoms, disease localization and behaviour (e. g. fistulizing, fibrostenotic or inflammatory), extraintestinal manifestations, medication, smoking habits, dysplasia, cancer and mortality.
Results:
In 16 % of patients inflammatory bowel disease had been diagnosed past the age of 40 years. In elderly patients with ulcerative colitis male gender was predominant. Diarrhea, abdominal pain and anaemia were observed more frequently in younger patients, whereas the remainder of parameters showed an equal distribution in both age groups.
Conclusions:
Younger patients are frequently afflicted by symptoms which potentially impair the quality of life. However, in this retrospective single center evaluation the disease localization and behaviour of inflammatory bowel disease in elderly patients was comparable to young adults. Due to a potential referral bias, these data await confirmation in larger prospective multicenter trials.
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