Background: Studies have demonstrated an increased risk of herpes zoster (HZ) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Most recently, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended HZ vaccination for adults aged 19 years and older who are at increased risk of shingles due to their disease or drug-related immunosuppression. We aimed to assess the burden of HZ in IBD inpatients and contribute with scientific evidence for an appropriate age cut-off vaccination recommendation.
Materials and methods: Population-based cross-sectional analysis using the 2014 US National Inpatient Sample (NIS). We measured the frequencies and demographics of adult patients with IBD admitted to the hospital with an HZ diagnosis. Age-stratification analysis was performed, and age groups were compared with non-IBD inpatients with an HZ diagnosis.
Results: From 307,260 IBD discharges, 1110 (0.35%) patients were found to have HZ as follows: shingles 63%; post-herpetic neuralgia 26%; HZ with ophthalmic involvement 7%; HZ with neurological involvement 4%. Women with IBD were more likely to have shingles ( P =0.002) and post-herpetic neuralgia ( P =0.001) than men with IBD. The shingles distribution by age in IBD inpatients was 18 to 39 (13%), 40 to 49 (19%), 50 to 59 (18%), 60 to 99 (50%) compared with 18 to 39 (8%), 40 to 49 (6%), 50 to 59 years (14%), 60 to 99 (72%) in non-IBD inpatients ( P =0.0004).
Conclusions: Hospitalized patients with IBD were found to have a higher frequency of shingles at younger ages when compared with hospitalized patients without IBD. Shingles is more frequent in women, and their prevalence steadily increases with aging though 32% of cases were seen in patients younger than age 50.
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