S0216 Rates of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Hispanics Comparable to Non-Hispanic Whites: Results of a Large Cohort Study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has historically been believed to occur at higher rates among non-Hispanic Whites compared to other ethnicities. However, current epidemiological understanding of IBD within the United States (US) has been drawn from research consisting of primarily non-Hispanic White cohorts with scant ethnoracial diversity. Hispanics are the fastest growing and the largest minority group in the US, yet they remain grossly underrepresented in studies of IBD. With this study, we aimed to better understand the epidemiology, demographics, clinical presentation, and treatment of IBD in the Hispanic population in Los Angeles County. METHODS: Our study was based at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center (OVMC), one of three safety net hospitals that comprise the Los Angeles Department of Health Services (LADHS). We queried pathology reports from 2015 to 2018 for key terms to identify biopsy-confirmed cases of IBD (N = 170) and abstracted pertinent data from electronic health records. Incidence and prevalence for ethnicities were standardized using their respective proportions in the composition of the OVMC patient population. Statistical analyses included two-proportion t-test, analysis of variance, binomial proportion confidence interval, general linear model and logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the 170 biopsy-confirmed cases of IBD, Hispanics represented 55% of all patients. The annual incidence rate per 100,000 patients for IBD among Hispanics was 175 (95% confidence interval [CI] 127–240) vs. 113 (95% CI 62–200) among non-Hispanic Whites. The prevalence of IBD per 100,000 patient-years was 418 (95% CI 341–512) for Hispanics and 557 (95% CI 431–739) for non-Hispanic Whites. In the subset with Crohn’s disease, smoking rates were significantly lower in Hispanics as compared to non-Hispanic Whites (12.9 vs 62.9%, P = 0.033). There was no significant difference between the two ethnic groups with regard to medical treatment, IBD-related surgery, presenting symptoms, or Montreal classification of disease. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge this is the largest US-based study of Hispanics with biopsy-confirmed IBD. The findings, herein, indicate that the incidence and prevalence of IBD among Hispanics in the US is higher than previously reported and comparable to rates among non-Hispanic Whites.Table 1.: Ethnic background of patients with biopsy-confirmed IBD, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles County, 2015–2018Table 2.: Demographics of Hispanic and NHW patients with biopsy-confirmed IBD, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles County, 2015–2018