Incidence and Prevalence of Crohn’s Disease and Ulerative Colitis (2013–2017) Based on the Latvian Nationwide Medicines Reimbursement Database

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, relapsing–remitting, inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract which consists of Crohn’s disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC) and undifferentiated IBD. Epidemiology of IBD is changing worldwide, but a significant gap remains in the description of the IBD population in Latvia. The aim of the study was to determine the incidence and prevalence rates of IBD in Latvia in the period between 2013 and 2017. Retrospective analysis of reimbursed medicines claims for IBD diagnoses from the Latvian National Health Service database (NHS) was conducted for the period of 2012 to 2017. From CD patients, 53.7% were female and the area of residency strongly favoured urban areas vs rural districts of Latvia, 59.1% vs 40.9%, respectively. A similar demographic pattern was observed in UC patients, where 56.2% were female and 55.1% of the total UC population lived in urban areas. The overall age- and sex-adjusted incidence rates for CD and UC were 16.45 (CI95% [14.68, 18.21]) and 70.53 (CI95% [66.88, 74.19]) per 100 000 population, respectively, for the entire 2013–2017 period. The prevalence of CD and UC in 2012 was 12.4 and 54.8 cases per 100 000 persons, respectively, compared to 15.5 and 79.5 cases per 100 000 persons in CD and UC in 2017, resulting in a 25% increase in prevalence of CD and 41% increase in UC over the 5-year period. For the first time temporal trends in IBD incidence and prevalence as well as differences across age groups and gender over a five-year period are reported for Latvia.