Insights important for planning
Because of the fragmented nature of the health care system, it’s been challenging to get an accurate estimate of how many patients in the United States have IBD, said Ashwin Ananthakrishnan, MD, MPH, a gastroenterologist with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston.
“The authors and involved organizations are to be fully complemented on this really ambitious and important study. Having an idea of how common IBD is and how it is likely to increase in prevalence is important for resource planning for organizations and health care systems,” said Dr. Ananthakrishnan, who was not involved in the study.
Although IBD incidence and prevalence is lower in non-White populations, there is still a “sizeable burden of IBD in those groups, and it’s important to understand the implications of that in terms of disease biology, treatment availability, disparities, and access to care,” he added.
“With the aging of the population and increasing prevalence, it is also important to understand that the ‘face of IBD’ in the coming decades may be different than what we traditionally have estimated it to be. This is also important to incorporate in decision-making,” Dr. Ananthakrishnan said.
Funding for the study was provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Hurtado-Lorenzo, Dr. Agrawal, and Dr. Ananthakrishnan have declared no relevant disclosures.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
