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Patients with autism spectrum disorders have increased prevalence of IBD
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Researchers found a significantly increased prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease among patients with autism spectrum disorders in a recent study.
“To our knowledge, this work comprises the largest group of [autism spectrum disorder] patient studies for IBD prevalence,” the researchers wrote.
They looked for reproducible differences in IBD rates among patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) using 2009 to 2013 nationwide claims data from the Aetna database (ASD, n = 52,270; controls, n = 7,151,925), data from Boston Children’s Hospital (ASD, n = 7,201; controls, n = 594,684), Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (ASD, n = 1,555; controls, n = 203,084) and the Simons Simplex Consortium, a North American ASD registry (ASD, n = 2,728).
First, they compared patients with and without ASDs within each study population, then combined the comparisons with a meta-analysis. They also compared diagnoses from the Boston Children’s Hospital and Simons Simplex Consortium populations, which were expert-verified, and compared them with nationally reported pediatric IBD rates, as well.
They found significantly increased rates of IBD-related ICD-9-CM codes among patients with ASDs compared with controls in all case-control study populations collectively (P < .001), and in the Aetna (P < .001) and Boston Children’s populations individually (P = .01).
Seven ASD patients in the Simons Simplex Consortium population had expert-verified IBD, and 16 of 32 patients with codes for both IBD and ASD in the Boston Children’s population had expert-verified IBD. The age-adjusted prevalence of expert-verified IBD among patients with ASDs was significantly higher than nationally reported rates (P < .001, P < .0219).
“Across each population with different kinds of ascertainment, there was a consistent and statistically significant increased prevalence of IBD in patients with ASD than their respective controls and nationally reported rates for pediatric IBD,” the researchers concluded. “These results lend further evidence for an association between IBD and ASD.” – by Adam Leitenberger
Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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