Geriatric patients admitted for IBD at greater risk of death

Old age (>65 years) is independently associated with a higher probability of death among ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) patients, a study has found.

A team of investigators sought to assess the inpatient mortality risk among geriatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). They included all patients with UC or CD in the National Inpatient sample (NIS) from 2016 and 2017 as the primary or secondary diagnosis with an IBD-related cause of admission in this study.

Using multivariable survey-adjusted regression, the investigators compared outcomes for patients aged >65 years with those aged <65 years. CD and UC patients were analysed separately.

About 162,800 admissions for CD and related complications and 96,450 for UC were recorded from 2016 to 2017. Overall, 30 percent of UC and 20 percent of CD admissions were geriatric.

Geriatric status correlated with an increased likelihood of death for CD (odds ratio [OR], 3.47, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 2.72‒4.44) and UC (OR, 2.75, 95 percent CI, 2.16‒3.49) after adjustment for comorbidities, admission type, hospital type, inpatient surgery, and IBD subtype. In all groups, the most common cause of death was infections (∼80 percent) for both CD and UC.

Notably, there was an average increase of 0.19 days (95 percent CI, 0.05‒0.34) and $2,467 (95 percent CI, 545‒4,388) seen for geriatric CD patients, but no significant change was noted for UC.

“Further research is needed to optimize care for this growing patient population,” the investigators said.