Shifting Health Care Use from Hospitalisations and Surgeries to Outpatient Visits in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Population-based Cohort Study from Ontario, Canada

BACKGROUND: Modern, specialised care for children with inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] may have resulted in changes in health services use. We report trends over time in health services utilisation and surgery for children with IBD and children without IBD. METHODS: Children aged <18 years, diagnosed with IBD between 1994 and 2013 [n = 5518] and followed until 2015 in Ontario, Canada, were identified from health administrative data and matched to children without IBD on age, sex, rural/urban household, and income [n = 26,677]. We report the annual percentage change [APC] with 95% confidence intervals [CI] in the rate of outpatient visits, emergency department [ED] visits, and hospitalisations, using negative binomial regression for events within 5 years from the diagnosis/index date. We used Cox proportional hazards regression models to report APC in hazards of intestinal resection [Crohn’s disease; CD] and colectomy [ulcerative colitis; UC]. RESULTS: IBD-specific hospitalisation rates decreased by 2.5% [95% CI 1.8–3.2%] annually, and all-cause hospitalisation rates in children without IBD decreased by 4.3% [95% CI 3.5–5.1%] annually. Intestinal resection risk in CD decreased by 6.0% [95% CI 4.6–7.3%] annually and colectomy risk in UC decreased by 3.0% [95% CI 0.7–5.2%] annually. In contrast, IBD-specific outpatient visit rates increased after 2005 by 4.0% [95% CI 3.1–4.9%] annually. Similar trends in outpatient visits were not observed in children without IBD. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalisations and surgeries decreased over time while outpatient visits increased after 2005. Decreasing hospitalisations were mirrored in children without IBD, likely resulting from a combination of changes in disease management and health system factors.