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
. 2017 Nov;5(4):288-292.
doi: 10.1093/gastro/gow036. Epub 2016 Dec 10.

Rates of hospitalization among African American and Caucasian American patients with Crohn's disease seen at a tertiary care center

Caroline H Walker  1 , Sumant S Arora  2 , Lisandro D Colantonio  3 , Donny D Kakati  4 , Paul S Fitzmorris  5 , Daniel I Chu  6 , Talha A Malik  5
Affiliations

Rates of hospitalization among African American and Caucasian American patients with Crohn's disease seen at a tertiary care center

Caroline H Walker et al. Gastroenterol Rep (Oxf). 2017 Nov.

Abstract

Background: There is equivocal evidence regarding differences in the clinical course and outcomes of Crohn's disease (CD) among African Americans compared with Caucasian Americans. We sought to analyze whether African Americans with CD are more likely to be hospitalized for CD-related complications when compared with Caucasian Americans with CD.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study including 909 African Americans and Caucasian Americans with CD who were seen at our tertiary care Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) referral center between 2000 and 2013. We calculated the rate of hospitalization for CD-related complications among African Americans and Caucasian Americans separately. Zero-inflated Poisson regression models with robust variance estimates were used to estimate crude and multivariable adjusted rate ratios (RR) for CD-related hospitalizations. Multivariable adjusted models included adjustment for age, sex, duration of CD, smoking and CD therapy.

Results: The cumulative rate of CD-related hospital admissions was higher among African American patients compared with Caucasian American patients (395.6/1000 person-years in African Americans vs. 230.4/1000 person-years in Caucasian Americans). Unadjusted and multivariable adjusted rate ratios for CD-related hospitalization comparing African Americans and Caucasian Americans were 1.59 (95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 1.10-2.29; P=0.01) and 1.44 (95%CI: 1.02-2.03; P=0.04), respectively.

Conclusions: African Americans with CD followed at a tertiary IBD-referral center had a higher rate for CD-related hospitalizations compared with Caucasian Americans. Future studies should examine whether socioeconomic status and biologic markers of disease status could explain the higher risk observed among African Americans.

Keywords: African American; Caucasian American; Crohn’s disease; racial disparity.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Crohn BB, Ginzburg L, Oppenheimer GD.. Regional ileitis: a pathologic and clinical entity. JAMA 1932;99:1323–9. - PubMed
    1. Klionsky DJ. Crohn’s disease, autophagy and the Paneth cell. N Engl J Med 2009;360:1785–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schwartz DA, Pemberton JH, Sandborn WJ.. Diagnosis and treatment of perianal fistulas in Crohn disease. Ann Intern Med 2001;135:906–18. - PubMed
    1. Lichtenstein GR, Hanauer SB, Sandborn WJ.. ACG Practice Guidelines: Management of Crohn’s disease in adults. Am J Gastroenterol 2009;104:465–83. - PubMed
    1. Mendeloff AI, Monk M, Siegel CI, et al.Some epidemiological features of ulcerative colitis and regional enteritis. A preliminary report. Gastroenterology 1966;51:748–56. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources