P231 Impact of age of Inflammatory Bowel Disease diagnosis on disease phenotype and severity in elderly patients

Orfanoudaki, E.(1)*;Chlorakis, G.(1);Foteinogiannopoulou, K.(1);Drygiannakis, I.(1);Theodoraki, E.(1);Tsafaridou, M.(1);Koutroubakis, I.(1);

(1)University Hospital of Heraklion- Medical School- University of Crete, Gastroenterology, Heraklion- Crete, Greece;

Background

Up to fifteen percent of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients are diagnosed after the age of 60 years (elderly onset-EO). Additionally, due to the ageing of population and the increasing prevalence of IBD the number of elderly patients (>60) with an earlier diagnosis (adult onset-AO) is rapidly increasing. We aimed to compare disease characteristics and management between EO and AO elderly IBD patients.

Methods

Data of a prospective longitudinal registry of IBD patients followed in a tertiary center over a ten-year period (2012-2022) were analyzed. Consecutive IBD patients aged over 60 years at study entry were included. They were divided into two groups according to their age at diagnosis <60 (AO) and ≥ 60 (ΕΟ) years. The two groups were compared as for their demographic and clinical characteristics, their treatment and outcomes (disease related surgeries, development of malignancy, death).

Results

Out of 1104 patients recorded in the IBD registry, 325 were currently ≥ 60 years old (29%) and among them 267 had complete data and were included in the study (Table 1). ΕΟ had 100 (37%) and ΑΟ 167 (63%). Median age at diagnosis (IQR) was 47 years (37-53) for AO and 66 years (62-71) for EO (p<0.0001) whereas median disease duration was 23 (15-31) and 9 (5-14) years respectively (P<0.0001). Male gender (AO:61%, EO:68%) and ulcerative colitis (UC) (AO: 60%, EO: 53%) predominated in both groups. Family history of IBD and extraintestinal manifestations were lower in the EO than the AO group (p=0.02 and p=0.01 respectively). UC localization was most commonly proctitis and left sided in both groups. CD was most often ileal in EO patients when compared with AO (p=0.028) and inflammatory phenotype was more prevalent in both groups (ΑΟ:69% and ΕΟ:79% respectively). Immunomodulators were less frequently used in EO (17% vs 40.8%, p=0.0001) which was not the case for biologics (40.1% vs 32%, p=0.18) and prednisolone (21.5% vs 16%, p=0.27). During a median disease duration of 16 (8-25) years, comparable rates of IBD-related surgeries (12.5% ΑΟ vs 9% EO) and total malignancies (18.5% ΑΟ vs 14% ΕΟ) were observed but there were more deaths in the ΕΟ group (20% vs 8.3%; p=0.0063).
Table 1 Disease characteristics of IBD patients included in the study

Conclusion

There are some distinct differences in demographic, clinical characteristics, treatment and mortality between EO and AO elderly IBD patients. The comparable rates of biologic use and IBD-related surgeries probably indicate that EO-IBD does not have a mild disease course. The clinical implication of these findings needs further validation.