Increased Mortality Rates With Prolonged Corticosteroid Therapy When Compared With Antitumor Necrosis Factor-α-Directed Therapy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

OBJECTIVES: Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) that compromise quality of life and may increase mortality. This study compared the mortality risk with prolonged corticosteroid use vs. antitumor necrosis factor-α (anti-TNF) drugs in IBD. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted among Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries from 2001 to 2013 with IBD prescribed either >3,000 mg of prednisone or equivalent within a 12-month period or new initiation of anti-TNF therapy, each treated as time-updating exposures. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes included common causes of death. Marginal structural models were used to determine odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for anti-TNF use relative to corticosteroids. RESULTS: Among patients with CD, 7,694 entered the cohort as prolonged corticosteroid users and 1,879 as new anti-TNF users. Among patients with UC, 3,224 and 459 entered the cohort as prolonged CS users and new anti-TNF users, respectively. The risk of death was statistically significantly lower in patients treated with anti-TNF therapy for CD (21.4 vs. 30.1 per 1,000 person-years, OR 0.78, 0.65–0.93) but not for UC (23.0 vs. 30.9 per 1,000 person-years, OR 0.87, 0.63–1.22). Among the CD cohort, anti-TNF therapy was also associated with lower rates of major adverse cardiovascular events (OR 0.68, 0.55–0.85) and hip fracture (OR 0.54, 0.34–0.83). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with prolonged corticosteroid exposure, anti-TNF drug use was associated with reduced mortality in patients with CD that may be explained by lower rates of major adverse cardiovascular events and hip fracture.