A prospective study of inflammatory bowel disease phenotypes in extremes of age and comparison with adults

Background and Aims Pediatric and elderly inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are less explored, often in retrospective studies. The pediatric group has a more extensive and aggressive disease phenotype requiring aggressive treatments, whereas the elderly group may have less aggressive diseases. Methods We prospectively compared disease characteristics of a single center cohort of IBD patients (pediatric age ≤ 16 years; adults 17 to 59 years; and elderly ≥ 60 years) seen between September 2018 and November 2019 with at least six months of follow-up. Results Total 266 IBD patients (137 males) included 47 pediatric, 175 adults and 44 elderly patients. Among ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, pancolitis was more common in the pediatric group ( p = 0.018), while the elderly group had more indolent behaviors and infrequent extraintestinal manifestations ( p = 0.005). Among patients with Crohn’s disease (CD), the pediatric group had more often colonic diseases ( p = 0.02) and the elderly, ileal diseases ( p = 0.04). The disease behavior was similar in the three age groups. Perianal disease was least common in elderly CD patients ( p = 0.03). There was no treatment difference among different age groups in UC. In CD, pediatric patients needed biologics more frequently ( p = 0.005), while elderly CD patients less frequently required steroids, biologics, immunosuppressants and surgery ( p < 0.05). Conclusions We noted differences compared to western literature such as colonic location in pediatric CD and ileal location in elderly CD. Perianal disease was less frequent in the elderly CD group. There was no difference in treatment in the three age groups in UC, while there were no inter-age-group disease behavioral differences for UC and CD.