Epidemiology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Southern Peninsular Malaysia

To record the incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), its social demographics, clinical characteristics and treatment, in the state of Johor, Malaysia.

Hospital Sultanah Aminah, Johor Bahru, is the only public hospital in Johor with a Gastroenterology service. Data on all existing and new IBD patients managed by the Gastroenterology Unit in 2016 were collected. Incidence and prevalence of IBD in 2016 were then calculated based on the estimated population of Johor and Johor Bahru.

Twenty-five new cases of IBD were diagnosed in 2016. Among the 25 cases, 13 cases were Crohn's disease (CD), 10 were ulcerative colitis (UC) and two were IBD Unclassified (IBDU). The crude incidence of IBD, CD, UC and IBDU were 0.68, 0.36, 0.27, and 0.05 per 100,000 population respectively. Ethnic Indians had the highest incidence of IBD at 4.21 followed by Malays and Chinese at 0.56 and 0.18 per 100,000 population respectively. A total of 156 IBD cases were captured. Amongst them, 85 cases were UC, 68 cases were CD and three cases were IBDU, hence the prevalence of IBD, UC, CD and IBDU were 4.27, 2.33, 1.86 and 0.08 per 100,000 population respectively. Similarly, Indians had the highest prevalence at 16.84, followed by Chinese at 4.06 and Malays at 3.44 per 100,000 population.

The incidence of IBD in Johor is comparable to that of a previous study in northern Peninsular Malaysia. The ethnicity preponderance is similar to the previous studies conducted in Malaysia.