Characteristics and Incidence Trends for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Daegu-Kyungpook Province in Korea: a Multi-Center Study

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a heterogeneous chronic disease of unknown etiology. Although it is an important disease that shows a rapid increase in pediatric population, there are no pediatric studies that represent a specific region in Korea. Therefore, we studied the epidemiological and phenotypic characteristics of pediatric IBD in Daegu-Kyungpook province, Korea. METHODS: We included 122 children with pediatric IBD initially diagnosed at one of four university hospitals in Daegu-Kyungpook province between July 2010 and June 2016. We investigated the incidence trends, and the clinical characteristics at diagnosis were compared by Paris classification. RESULTS: We included 122 children: 98 with Crohn's disease (CD) and 24 with ulcerative colitis (UC). The average age at diagnosis was 13.6 years for IBD. The incidence shows an increasing trend. CD showed a significant increase, whereas UC appears to be increasing slowly. In CD, there was a significant male predominance. For disease activity sites, the most common location was L3 (77.6%), indicating ileocolonic involvement as the major type. B1 (88.8%) was the most common disease behaviors type. Perianal disease was noted in 43 patients (43.9%) and weight loss in 60 (61.2%). In UC, E4 (58.4%) was the most common disease activity site, indicating pancolonic involvement as the major type. CONCLUSION: We found that the number of pediatric patients with IBD is increasing rapidly in Daegu-Kyungpook province in Korea. Our study also revealed that the characteristics of pediatric IBD in our province differ somewhat from those of pediatric IBD in Western countries.