Prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease: estimates for 2010 and trends in Germany from a large insurance-based regional cohort

Objective. A worldwide increase in prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been reported. For Germany, latest publications not restricted to actively treated disease present data of the 1980s. This study estimates the administrative 1-year period IBD prevalence in 2010 and investigates the trend in prevalence of actively treated disease between 2001 and 2010. Material and methods. Utilizing an insurance-based cohort (n = 311,001 in 2001 to 265,102 in 2010), case definition was based on ICD-10 codes. The prevalence of active treatment was based on internally validated IBD cases of the respective year. The 1-year period prevalence in 2010 accounts for cases actively treated in at least one of the years between 2001 and 2010. Estimates were directly standardized by age and sex to the population of Germany. The change in prevalence of actively treated disease over the years was evaluated by means of Poisson regression. Results. The IBD prevalence in 2010 was 744 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 707–775) per 100,000 (Crohn’s disease: 322 [95% CI: 302–346], ulcerative colitis: 412 [95% CI: 389–436] per 100,000). The prevalence of actively treated disease increased significantly between 2001 (344 [95% CI: 324–364] per 100,000) and 2010 (493 [95% CI: 464–519] per 100,000; increase in prevalence by 42% [95% CI: 31%–53%], p trend = 6.0 × 10−19). Conclusion. In line with worldwide reports, our results based on a large insurance cohort suggest a considerable increase in IBD prevalence in Germany since the 1980s. The significant increase in prevalence of actively treated disease in our cohort highlights the need to adapt healthcare services and deal with the burden associated with increasing numbers of IBD patients.