Juvenile-Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Predictors of Morbidity and Health Status in Early Adult Life

We interviewed and examined 70 young adults (50 Crohn's disease, 20 ulcerative colitis) from a geographically derived cohort of patients with juvenile-onset (≤ 16 years) inflammatory bowel disease at a mean of 14 years (range 5.2–29.5) after diagnosis. Patients with initially ileo-colonic Crohn's disease spent significantly longer in hospital than other groups. Thirty-nine Crohn's disease and 10 ulcerative colitis patients have had major surgery, with permanent stomas in 15 cases of Crohn's disease and seven of ulcerative colitis. In Crohn's disease the disease was still active at the time of review in 16 of 50 patients (10 of 20 women), whereas only two of the 20 patients with ulcerative colitis had active disease. The data show that the high early morbidity of juvenile-onset inflammatory bowel disease continues into adult life, with particularly severe and disabling manifestations in women with Crohn's disease.