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Updated: Apr 26, 2026
Investigating Intestinal Inflammation in DSS-induced Model of IBD
Published on: February 1, 2012
Decreasing incidence of inflammatory bowel disease in eastern Canada: a population database study
Desmond Leddin1, Hala Tamim, Adrian R Levy
1Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University, 912 Victoria, Victoria General Hsopital, Halifax, NS B3H 2Y9, Canada. dleddin@Dal.Ca.
Background:
Nova Scotia has one of the highest incidences of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the world. We wished to determine trends of IBD over time.
Methods:
All Provincial residents have government provided health insurance and all interactions with the hospital, and physician billing systems, are captured on an administrative database. We used a validated measure to define incident cases of Crohn's (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC) and undifferentiated IBD (IBDU). Incidence rates of these diseases for the years 1996-2009 were calculated.
Results:
Over the study period, 7,153 new cases of IBD were observed of which 3,046 cases were categorized as CD (42.6%), 2,960 as UC (41.4%) and 1,147 as IBDU (16.0%). Annual age standardized incidence rates were very high but have declined for CD from 27.4 to 17.7/100,000 population and for UC from 21.4 to 16.7/100,000. The decline was seen in all age groups and both genders. The decrease was not explained by a small increase in IBDU.
Conclusion:
The incidence of CD and UC are decreasing in Nova Scotia. If replicated elsewhere this indicates a reversal after a long period of increasing occurrence of IBD. This has implications for both epidemiology and health planning.
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