Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2022 Jul 1;28(7):983-987. doi: 10.1093/ibd/izab219.

Edward L Barnes ^1 2 3, William B Nowell ⁴, Shilpa Venkatachalam ⁴, Angela Dobes ⁵, Michael D Kappelman ^2 3 6

Author information

¹Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

²Multidisciplinary Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

³Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

⁴Global Healthy Living Foundation, Upper Nyack, NY, USA.

⁵Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, New York, NY, USA.

⁶Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

Abstract

Background: The current burden of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) in minority populations is largely unknown. We sought to evaluate the relative prevalence of CD and UC across racial and ethnic groups within the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet).

Methods: We queried electronic health records from 337 centers from January 2013 to December 2018. We compared the relative prevalence of CD and UC across racial/ethnic groups to the general PCORnet populations using χ 2 and univariable logistic regression.

Results: Among 39,864,077 patients, 114,168 had CD, and 98,225 had UC. Relative to the overall PCORnet population, Black adult patients were significantly less likely than White patients to have a diagnosis of CD (odds ratio [OR], 0.53; 95% CI, 0.52-0.54) or UC (OR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.40-0.43). Pediatric Black patients were also less likely to have a diagnosis of CD (OR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.39-0.43) or UC (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.35-0.41). Adult Hispanic patients were less likely to have a diagnosis of CD (OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.32-0.34) or UC (OR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.44-0.46) compared with non-Hispanic patients. Similarly, pediatric Hispanic patients were less likely to have a diagnosis of CD (OR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.32-0.36) or UC (OR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.47-0.53).

Conclusions: Despite the increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the United States, these data suggest that CD and UC are modestly less prevalent among patients of non-White races and Hispanic ethnicity.