Temporal changes in the epidemiology, treatment and outcome of inflammatory bowel disease in South Limburg

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are chronic inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.This thesis presents the results of a large cohort in South Limburg of 2837 IBD patients. We showed that 4186 patients in the region suffer from Crohn's or colitis and that this number is increasing by 6% and 4% per year, respectively. An extrapolation to the national situation shows that 80,627 patients in the Netherlands suffer from IBD, significantly more than the earlier estimate of 55,000.Furthermore, we show that there have been some improvements in the course of the disease in the last 20 years. For example, the risk of bowel surgery has fallen by 59% (Crohn) and 45% (colitis). The total use of prednisone, a substance with relevant side effects, has also decreased. The latter is mainly due to new treatments and treatment strategies