Prevalence of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Among Adults Aged ≥18 Years — United States, 2015

Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), are characterized by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract (1). IBD has been associated with poor quality of life and extensive morbidity and often results in complications requiring hospitalizations and surgical procedures (2-4). Most previous studies of IBD have used administrative claims data or data collected from limited geographic areas to demonstrate increases in estimated prevalence of IBD within the United States (5,6). Few national prevalence estimates of IBD among adults based on large, nationally representative data sources exist, and those that do tend to be based on older data. For example, the most recent national study used 1999 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data and estimated that 1.8 million (0.9%) U.S. adults had IBD (7). To examine the prevalence of IBD among the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. adult population, data from the 2015 NHIS were analyzed. Overall, an estimated 3.1 million, or 1.3%, of U.S. adults have received a diagnosis of IBD. Within population subgroups, a higher prevalence of IBD was identified among adults aged ≥45 years, Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites, and adults with less than a high school level of education, not currently employed, born in the United States, living in poverty, or living in suburban areas. The use of a nationally representative data source such as the NHIS to estimate the prevalence of IBD overall and by population subgroups is important to understand the burden of IBD on the U.S. health care system.