Imperial College London

Academic Institute

CPRD879

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are chronic bowel conditions inclusive of Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. They present with debilitating symptoms including diarrhoea, rectal bleeding and abdominal pain. Current treatments include steroids and immune-suppressant medications, which reduce bowel inflammation. However, about a third of patients require surgery for their disease at some point.

Timely diagnosis in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is essential to enable early treatment to alleviate symptoms and prevent disease progression. The impact of time interval from first health seeking behaviour to the point of IBD diagnosis on disease outcome in IBD is unclear. Some studies demonstrate a correlation between this time period and increased risk of intestinal surgery in Crohn’s disease (CD), others did not. The influences of this time period on the course ulcerative colitis (UC) are limited. The impact of this time period on the subsequent clinical course of IBD has not been examined on a population level in the United Kingdom. Furthermore what is less clear is the impact of recurrent health seeking behaviour with undiagnosed gastrointestinal symptoms on the subsequent clinical course of IBD.

08/01/2021

Release