Epidemiology of juvenile-onset inflammatory bowel disease in central Saudi Arabia

There is limited information about inflammatory bowel disease in Arab children. Hence, the objective of this study was to report on the epidemiology of this condition in our community. Medical records were analysed for all children below 18 years of age diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and followed up in our institution over a period of 10 years. From 1993 to 2002, 50 consecutive children were diagnosed to have IBD. This gives an estimated incidence of 0.5 cases/100 000/year and a prevalence of 5 cases/100 000 populations for the region of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Most of the children (90 per cent) were Saudi nationals and the female to male ratio was 1 : 0.6. The age range was between 5 and 18 years with 16 per cent of the cases diagnosed in children below 12 years of age. Chronic ulcerative colitis was the commonest form accounting for 48 per cent, followed by Crohn's disease and indeterminate colitis in 38 per cent and 16 per cent of the children, respectively. The best agreement between colonoscopic and histopathologic findings (89 per cent) was in children with ulcerative colitis followed by normal findings and Crohn's disease in 63 per cent and 35 per cent of the cases, respectively. It was concluded that the incidence and prevalence of IBD in this report are lower than in any other population. Nevertheless, comparison with older data suggests that the incidence is increasing.