Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with inflammatory bowel disease in Erbil City

Abstract EN

: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is comprised of two major disorders: ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD).

There is an evident gap in the epidemiological and clinical features of the patients with IBD in this region.

To know the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with IBD at Erbil city, this study had been conducted.

Materials and Methods: Across-sectional study extended from October 2017 to May 2018; during this period, 64 patients diagnosed with IBD were included in this study.

Details about the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with IBD had been reviewed.

Results: From 64 cases of IBD, 65.6% was UC and 34.4% was CD, the disease was more prevalent at young age group (20–29 years) in both UC (33.3%) and CD (36.4%), respectively.

Patients were comparable in all of the general characteristics except for smoking (P < 0.05).

Patients with UC significantly presented with abdominal pain (P < 0.010), bloody diarrhea (P < 0.0001), rectal bleeding (P < 0.0001), and anemia (P < 0.045), while the CD patients were more presented with diarrhea (P < 0.0001), vomiting (P < 0.003), and oral ulcer (P < 0.044).

Patients with UC were using more oral contraceptive pills (P > 0.05).

Up to 54.8% of patients with UC had active state of the disease, while the majority of CD patients (81.8%) were in remission.

Conclusions: UC was more common than CD; IBD was more common in men.

Patients with UC and CD were comparable in the majority of epidemiological and clinical features.

The drug history has a significant association with UC and CD, and CD was more prevalent among smokers.