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Observational Study
. 2021 Mar;53(3):263-270.
doi: 10.1016/j.dld.2020.12.013. Epub 2020 Dec 26.

Risk of COVID 19 in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases compared to a control population

Giovanni Maconi  1 , Cristina Bosetti  2 , Alberta De Monti  3 , Ray Kiran Boyapati  4 , Edward Shelton  4 , Nicole Piazza  5 , Anna Maria Carvalhas Gabrielli  3 , Marco Vincenzo Lenti  6 , Cristina Bezzio  7 , Chiara Ricci  8 , Salvatore Greco  9 , Samanta Romeo  10 , Francesco Giangregorio  11 , Daniele Gridavilla  3 , Fabio Tagliani  3 , Alessandro Massari  3 , Luca Pastorelli  12 , Antonio Di Sabatino  6 , Simone Saibeni  7 , Saverio Alicante  10 , Francesca Ferretti  3 , Giuliano Rizzardini  13 , Massimo Galli  14 , Sandro Ardizzone  3
Affiliations
Observational Study

Risk of COVID 19 in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases compared to a control population

Giovanni Maconi et al. Dig Liver Dis. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Background: It is unclear whether patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at increased risk of COVID-19.

Objectives: This observational study compared the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms, diagnosis and hospitalization in IBD patients with a control population with non-inflammatory bowel disorders.

Methods: This multicentre study, included 2733 outpatients (1397 IBD patients and 1336 controls), from eight major gastrointestinal centres in Lombardy, Italy. Patients were invited to complete a web-based questionnaire regarding demographic, historical and clinical features over the previous 6 weeks. The prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms, diagnosis and hospitalization for COVID-19 was assessed.

Results: 1810 patients (64%) responded to the questionnaire (941 IBD patients and 869 controls). IBD patients were significantly younger and of male sex than controls. NSAID use and smoking were more frequent in controls. IBD patients were more likely treated with vitamin-D and vaccinated for influenza. Highly probable COVID-19 on the basis of symptoms and signs was less frequent in the IBD group (3.8% vs 6.3%; OR:0.45, 95%CI:0.28-0.75). IBD patients had a lower rate of nasopharyngeal swab-PCR confirmed diagnosis (0.2% vs 1.2%; OR:0.14, 95%CI:0.03-0.67). There was no difference in hospitalization between the groups (0.1% vs 0.6%; OR:0.14, 95%CI:0.02-1.17).

Conclusion: IBD patients do not have an increased risk of COVID-19 specific symptoms or more severe disease compared with a control group of gastroenterology patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Inflammatory bowel disease; Symptoms.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest All authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.

Comment in

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