SAN DIEGO — Malnutrition was as likely in adults with inflammatory bowel disease as it was in children, a study of data on 385 patients has shown.
The investigators were surprised to find statistically similar rates of malnutrition in 264 adults with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), compared with 121 pediatric cases—9% vs. 10%, respectively, Valerie Marcil, Ph.D., reported in an award-winning poster presentation at the annual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.
Malnutrition is common in IBD, and it had been thought that the added energy costs of growth in children and adolescents would make them more likely to be malnourished than were their adult counterparts.
Anemia was more common in pediatric patients (59%) than in adults (22%), while vitamin B12 deficiency was seen more often in adults (12%) than in pediatric cases (5%), reported Dr. Marcil of McGill University, Montreal, and her associates. There were no significant differences between age groups in the percentage of patients with low serum levels of iron (17% in adults and 22% in children) or folate (2% vs. 3%, respectively).
Participants had Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, or unclassified colitis. The data showed that active Crohn's disease made malnutrition more likely in both adults and pediatric cases, compared with inactive disease. Active disease did not increase the risk of malnutrition in the other subgroups.
Crohn's disease was the most common form of IBD in both adults (74%) and children (92%) in this study.
The cross-sectional comparison used data from four tertiary care centers in the university's IBD database. Malnutrition was defined in patients younger than 20 years as a body mass index z score for age below two standard deviations. In adults aged 20–64 years, a BMI less than 18.5 kg/m
Dr. Marcil reported having no conflicts of interest.