Epidemiological and clinical features of Spanish patients with Crohn's disease

Objectives To study the epidemiological features, clinical profile and drug utilization patterns of patients with Crohn's disease (CD). Design A cross-sectional study of 635 Spanish patients with CD included thr ough a stratified and proportional random sampling. Results The mean age of the patients was 33 years (SD 11.9) (52% were women ). Nine per cent of the patients had a family history of CD and 14% had a h istory of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Over half (54%) of the patients were smokers. The most frequent localization of CD was ileocolonic involve ment (47%). Twelve per cent had peri-anal disease. Regarding symptom patter n, 23% of the patients had chronic active disease and 42% had experienced n o relapses during the previous 12 months. Compared with the inflammatory pa ttern, fistulizing pattern was associated with a significantly higher propo rtion of patients with chronic active disease, a higher number of relapses per year, and a higher incidence of post-surgical relapses. Sixty-one per c ent of the patients had complications and 35% were hospitalized. Acute rela pse and bowel stricture were the most common complications. The need for ho spitalization was higher in patients with fistulizing pattern. Regarding me dication, 77% and 41% of the patients were taking aminosalicylates and cort icosteroids respectively, mainly on a long-term basis. Mean daily doses (MD D) were 2.2 g/day and 31.7 mg/day respectively. Twenty-one per cent had rec eived immunosuppressors with a MDD of 1.6 mg/kg/day. Fifteen per cent of th e patients had received metronidazole or ciprofloxacin while 5% were taking anti-diarrhoeal drugs. Conclusions Spanish patients with CD are young, have frequent hospitalizati on requirements, complications, and a high consumption of drugs. Eur J Gast roenterol Hepatol 11:1121-1127 (C) 1999 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.