Epidemiological and clinical features of Spanish patients with Crohn's disease. Spanish Epidemiological and Economic Study Group on Crohn's disease.

OBJECTIVES: To study the epidemiological features, clinical profile and drug utilization patterns of patients with Crohn's disease (CD).
DESIGN: A cross-sectional study of 635 Spanish patients with CD included through a stratified and proportional random sampling.
RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 33 years (SD 11.9) (52% were women). Nine per cent of the patients had a family history of CD and 14% had a history of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Over half (54%) of the patients were smokers. The most frequent localization of CD was ileocolonic involvement (47%). Twelve per cent had peri-anal disease. Regarding symptom pattern, 23% of the patients had chronic active disease and 42% had experienced no relapses during the previous 12 months. Compared with the inflammatory pattern, fistulizing pattern was associated with a significantly higher proportion of patients with chronic active disease, a higher number of relapses per year, and a higher incidence of post-surgical relapses. Sixty-one per cent of the patients had complications and 35% were hospitalized. Acute relapse and bowel stricture were the most common complications. The need for hospitalization was higher in patients with fistulizing pattern. Regarding medication, 77% and 41 % of the patients were taking aminosalicylates and corticosteroids respectively, mainly on a long-term basis. Mean daily doses (MDD) were 2.2 g/day and 31.7 mg/day respectively. Twenty-one per cent had received immunosuppressors with a MDD of 1.6 mg/kg/day. Fifteen per cent of the patients had received metronidazole or ciprofloxacin while 5% were taking anti-diarrhoeal drugs.
CONCLUSIONS: Spanish patients with CD are young, have frequent hospitalization requirements, complications, and a high consumption of drugs.