Determinants of Healthcare Utilization Among Veterans with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Identifying patient-level and disease-specific predictors of healthcare utilization in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may allow targeted interventions to reduce costs and improve outcomes.

To identify demographic and clinical predictors of healthcare utilization among veterans with IBD.

We conducted a single-center cross-sectional study of veterans with IBD from 1998 to 2010. Demographics and disease characteristics were abstracted by manual chart review. Annual number of IBD-related visits was estimated by dividing total number of IBD-related inpatient and outpatient encounters by duration of IBD care. Associations between predictors of utilization were determined using stepwise multivariable linear regression.

Overall, 676 patients (56% ulcerative colitis (UC), 42% Crohn's disease (CD), and 2% IBD unclassified (IBDU)) had mean 3.08 IBD-related encounters annually. CD patients had 3.59 encounters compared to 2.73 in UC (p < 0.01). In the multivariable model, Hispanics had less visits compared to Caucasians and African-Americans (2.09 vs. 3.09 vs. 3.42), current smokers had more visits than never smokers (3.54 vs. 2.43, p = 0.05), and first IBD visit at age <40 had more visits than age >65 (3.84 vs. 1.75, p = 0.04). UC pancolitis was associated with more visits than proctitis (3.47 vs. 2.15, p = 0.04). CD penetrating phenotype was associated with more encounters than inflammatory type (4.68 vs. 4.15, p = 0.04).

We found that current tobacco use, age <40 at first IBD visit, UC pancolitis, and CD fistuilizing phenotype in addition to Caucasian and African-American race were independent predictors of increased healthcare utilization. Interventions should be targeted at these groups to decrease healthcare utilization and costs.