Inflammatory Bowel Disease Phenotypes Vary by Race, Birthplace

MONDAY, Jan. 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), phenotype varies by race, and foreign-born patients of all races have later onset and milder disease, according to a study published online Dec. 16 in Gastro Hep Advances.

Ali Khalessi, M.D., from the New York University School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues conducted a single-center retrospective review of all IBD inpatients and outpatients treated from 1997 to 2017 to examine how race/ethnicity and immigration status influence IBD manifestations, treatments, and outcomes. The analysis included 577 patients: 29.8, 27.4, 21.7, and 13.0 percent White, Hispanic, Black, and Asian, respectively.

The researchers found that Asian patients were more likely than White patients to be male (odds ratio [OR], 2.63), and Black patients were more likely to be diagnosed with Crohn disease and to undergo IBD-related intestinal resection (ORs, 1.75 and 2.49, respectively). Foreign-born patients were more likely to be diagnosed with ulcerative colitis than U.S.-born patients (OR, 1.77), and they were less likely to be diagnosed before age 16 years (OR, 0.19). They were also less likely to have undergone intestinal resections, received biologics, or dermatologic manifestations (ORs, 0.39. 0.43, and 0.12, respectively).

"Further studies to mechanistically understand the reason for differential IBD risk and presentation in certain races and among immigrant patients may provide new insights into IBD pathogenesis," the authors write. "This can in turn help guide disease prognostication and management in a growing and diversifying IBD patient population."

Abstract/Full Text