This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Colorectal adenomas infrequent among younger adults
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The prevalence of colorectal adenomas is more than three times higher among adults aged 50 years and older, according to recent data.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the University of Puerto Rico and Utrecht Medical Center in the Netherlands, conducted an epidemiologic necropsy in serial autopsy patients to assess the prevalence of colorectal adenomas in young adults, compared with older adults.
The study included 3,558 people aged between 20 and 89 years who were autopsied between January 1, 1985 and December 31, 2004. The researchers compared younger adults, aged 20 to 49 years, with older adults, aged 50 to 89 years, and standardized the necropsy results to the general population.
The prevalence of adenomas increased from 1.72 to 3.59 per 100 autopsies from the third to fifth decade of life in younger adults, according to the researchers. After 50 years of age, the rate increased from 10.1 to 12.06 per 100 autopsies in the sixth and ninth decades of life. In older to younger adults, the RR for adenomas was 3.76 (P<.001).
In young adults, men had a higher prevalence of adenomas than women (RR=1.09; P<.001). Compared with black adults, white adults also had a higher prevalence of adenomas (RR=1.28; P<.001).
In contrast, older black adults had a higher prevalence than older white adults, though the prevalence remained higher for men than for women.
Both younger and older adults had primarily left-sided adenomas, but black adults in both groups had more right-sided adenomas.
Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2008;6:1011-1015.