Hospitalizations for Crohn’s disease were up by a statistically significant 35% from 2003 to 2013 … or they were up just 5%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It depends on how you look at it. In 2013, age-adjusted hospitalization was 59.7 stays per 100,000 population for Crohn’s as any-listed diagnosis – indicating that patients had Crohn’s disease but that it was not necessarily the main reason they were being hospitalized – compared with 44.2 per 100,000 in 2003. That’s an increase of 35%, the CDC said (MMWR. 2017 Apr 14;66[14]:377-81).
Hospitalizations with Crohn’s as the first-listed diagnosis – making it the main reason for the admission – were up 5% over the same period: 18.2 stays per 100,000 pop. in 2003 and 19.1 per 100,000 in 2013. That increase is not statistically significant, the CDC noted.
The increase in any-listed diagnosis “might represent greater physician awareness and diagnosis of Crohn’s disease or more complete coding of secondary diagnoses by physicians,” CDC investigators suggested.
Increases in hospitalizations for any-listed Crohn’s were significant for both men (40.5%) and women (31.6%). For first-listed Crohn’s, women saw a slight but not significant decrease of 1% while men had a significant 14.5% increase, according to the report, which was based on data from the National Inpatient Sample.
