Inflammatory bowel disease in children of middle eastern descent

Christina Mai Ying Naidoo; Steven T Leach; Andrew S Day; Daniel A Lemberg

doi:10.1155/2014/906128

Inflammatory bowel disease in children of middle eastern descent

Int J Pediatr. 2014:2014:906128. doi: 10.1155/2014/906128. Epub 2014 Jun 2.

Authors

Christina Mai Ying Naidoo¹, Steven T Leach¹, Andrew S Day², Daniel A Lemberg³

Affiliations

¹ School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
² School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia ; Department of Gastroenterology, Sydney Children's Hospital, High Street, Randwick, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia ; Department of Pediatrics, University of Otago (Christchurch), Christchurch 8140, New Zealand.
³ School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia ; Department of Gastroenterology, Sydney Children's Hospital, High Street, Randwick, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia.

Abstract

Increasing rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are now seen in populations where it was once uncommon. The pattern of IBD in children of Middle Eastern descent in Australia has never been reported. This study aimed to investigate the burden of IBD in children of Middle Eastern descent at the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick (SCHR). The SCHR IBD database was used to identify patients of self-reported Middle Eastern ethnicity diagnosed between 1987 and 2011. Demographic, diagnosis, and management data was collected for all Middle Eastern children and an age and gender matched non-Middle Eastern IBD control group. Twenty-four patients of Middle Eastern descent were identified. Middle Eastern Crohn's disease patients had higher disease activity at diagnosis, higher use of thiopurines, and less restricted colonic disease than controls. Although there were limitations with this dataset, we estimated a higher prevalence of IBD in Middle Eastern children and they had a different disease phenotype and behavior compared to the control group, with less disease restricted to the colon and likely a more active disease course.