Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Aug;10(8):934-42.
doi: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjw050. Epub 2016 Mar 1.

The Faroese IBD Study: Incidence of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Across 54 Years of Population-based Data

Turid Hammer  1 , Kári R Nielsen  2 , Pia Munkholm  3 , Johan Burisch  3 , Elsebeth Lynge  1
Affiliations

The Faroese IBD Study: Incidence of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Across 54 Years of Population-based Data

Turid Hammer et al. J Crohns Colitis. 2016 Aug.

Abstract

Background and aims: Inflammatory bowel diseases [IBDs] include Crohn's disease [CD], ulcerative colitis [UC], and IBD unclassified [IBDU]. In 2010 and 2011, the ECCO-EpiCom study found the worldwide highest incidence of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] in the Faroe Islands: 83 per 100 000 [European Standard Population, ESP]. The present study assessed the long-term time trends in IBD incidence in the Faroese population.

Methods: In this population-based study, data were retrieved from the National Hospital of the Faroe Islands and included all incident cases of CD, UC, and IBDU diagnosed between July 1960 and July 2014. Patients of all ages were included and diagnoses were defined according to the Copenhagen Diagnostic Criteria.

Results: A total of 664 incident IBD patients were diagnosed: 113 with CD, 417 with UC, and 134 with IBDU. Of these, 51 [8%] were diagnosed with paediatric-onset IBD. Between 1960 and 1979, a total of 55 persons were diagnosed; 105 in 1980-89; 166 in 1990-99; 180 in 2000-09; and 158 in 2010-14. This represented an increase in the age-standardised IBD incidence rate from 7, 25, 40, and 42 to 74 per 100 000 [ESP]. For CD, the increase was from 1 to 10, for UC from 4 to 44, and for IBDU from 2 to 21 per 100 000 [ESP].

Conclusions: The high IBD incidence was found to be a relatively new phenomenon. The observed increase is unlikely to be an artefact resulting from, for instance, better registration. Our study indicated a real and increasing disease burden resulting from changing-so far unidentified-exposures.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Faroe Islands; inflammatory bowel diseases.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Median time to final diagnosis.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Montreal classification for Crohn’s disease [CD] and ulcerative colitis [UC] patients from 1960 to 2014.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] age-standardised European Standard Population [ESP] incidence rates per 100 000 person-years [py].
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Incidence rates per 100 000 person-years [py] for age groups from 1960 to 2014.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Incidence rates per 100 000 person-years [py] for age segments over time periods.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Incidence rates per 100 000 person-years [py] for men and women from 1960 to 2014.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Molodecky NA, Soon IS, Rabi DM, et al. Increasing incidence and prevalence of the inflammatory bowel diseases with time, based on systematic review. Gastroenterology 2012;142:46–54. - PubMed
    1. Burisch J, Munkholm P. The epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease. Scand J Gastroenterol 2015;50:942–51. - PubMed
    1. Burisch J, Jess T, Martinato M, Lakatos PL; ECCO-EpiCom The burden of inflammatory bowel disease in Europe. J Crohns Colitis 2013;7:322–37. - PubMed
    1. Shivananda S, Lennard-Jones J, Logan R, et al. Incidence of inflammatory bowel disease across Europe: is there a difference between north and south? Results of the European Collaborative Study on Inflammatory Bowel Disease [EC-IBD]. Gut 1996;39:690–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burisch J, Pedersen N, Čuković-Čavka S, et al. ; EpiCom-group East- West gradient in the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease in Europe: the ECCO- EpiCom inception cohort. Gut 2014;63:588–97. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources