Infections and Cardiovascular Complications are Common Causes for Hospitalization in Older Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Prevalence of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in older patients is increasing. Risk-benefit trade-offs of therapy are poorly understood in older patients, who may be at higher risk of nonIBD and/or treatment-related complications, rather than disease-related complications. We conducted a nationally representative cohort study to estimate and compare annual burden, costs, and causes for hospitalization in older versus younger patients with IBD.

Using the Nationwide Readmissions Database 2013, we created a cohort of 47,402 patients with IBD who had been hospitalized at least once between January-June 2013 and followed for rehospitalization until December 2013. We estimated annual burden (total days spent in hospital), costs, and causes (based on primary discharge diagnosis) of hospitalization in older (>64y, n = 15,428), middle-age (40-64y, n = 18,476), and younger (<40y, n = 13,498) patients.

Older patients with IBD spent more days in hospital annually [median interquartile range : 7 (3-13) days] than middle-age [6 (3-12) days], and younger patients [5 ([3-11) days], with significantly higher hospitalization-related costs $15,078 (7423-30,955) vs $12,921 (6367-28,182) vs.. $10,070 (5192-22,100), P < 0.01. Older patients were significantly more likely to be hospitalized due to serious infections (14.6% vs 10.6% vs 8.4%; P < 0.01) and cardiovascular complications (9.9% vs 4.3% vs 0.8%; P < 0.01), and they were less likely due to IBD-related complications (11.8% vs 23.5% vs 41.4%; P < 0.01).

Older IBD patients have higher burden and costs of hospitalization than younger patients, mainly attributed to serious infections and cardiovascular complications, rather than disease-related complications. Careful assessment of comparative risks-benefits of different IBD therapies in older patients is warranted to identify the optimal treatment approach.