Real-world disease activity and sociodemographic, clinical and treatment characteristics of moderate-to-severe inflammatory bowel disease in Brazil.

Background: Understanding the treatment landscape of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is essential for improving disease management and patient outcomes. Brazil is the largest Latin American country, and it presents socioeconomic and health care differences across its geographical regions. This country has the highest increase in IBD incidence and prevalence in Latin America, but information about the clinical and treatment characteristics of IBD is scarce.
Aim: To describe the sociodemographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics of IBD outpatients in Brazil overall and in the Southeast, South and Northeast/Midwest regions.
Methods: Multicenter, cross-sectional study with a 3-year retrospective chart review component. Patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) were consecutively enrolled between October 2016 and February 2017. Active CD at enrollment was defined as a Harvey Bradshaw Index ≥ 8 or a CD Activity Index ≥ 220 or a calprotectin level > 200 μg/g or an active result based on colonoscopy suggestive of inadequate control during the previous year; active UC was defined as a partial Mayo score ≥ 5. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze all variables.
Results: In a total of 407 included patients, CD was more frequent than UC, both overall (264 CD/143 UC patients) and by region (CD:UC ratios of 2.1 in the Southeast, 1.6 in the South and 1.2 in the Northeast/Midwest). The majority of patients were female (54.2% of CD; 56.6% of UC), and the mean ages were 45.9 ± 13.8 years (CD) and 42.9 ± 13.0 years (UC). The median disease duration was 10.0 (range: 0.5-45) years for both IBD types. At enrollment, 44.7% [95% confidence interval (CI): 38.7-50.7] of CD patients and 25.2% (95%CI: 18.1-32.3) of UC patients presented with active disease. More than 95% of IBD patients were receiving treatment at enrollment; CD patients were commonly treated with biologics (71.6%) and immunosuppressors (67.4%), and UC patients were commonly treated with mesalazine [5-Aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA)] derivates (69.9%) and immunosuppressors (44.1%). More than 50% of the CD patients had ileocolonic disease, and 41.7% presented with stricturing disease. One-quarter of CD patients had undergone CD-related surgery in the past 3 years, and this proportion was lower in the Northeast/Midwest region (2.9%).
Conclusion: In Brazil, there are regional variations in IBD management. CD outweighs UC in both frequency and disease activity. However, one-quarter of UC patients have active disease, and most are receiving 5-ASA treatment.
Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: Cyrla Zaltman has received speaker fees from AbbVie, Janssen, Pfizer, UCB Pharma and Takeda, and received research funding from AbbVie, Takeda, and Janssen; Rogerio Serafim Parra has received fees for serving as speaker or as an advisory board member for AbbVie, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, UCB Pharma and Takeda; Ligia Yukie Sassaki has received speaker fees from AbbVie and Takeda; Genoile Oliveira Santana has received speaker fees from AbbVie, Janssen, Takeda and UCB Pharma; and received research funding from Celgene, Roche and Takeda; Maria de Lourdes Abreu Ferrari has received fees for serving as a speaker or as an advisory board member for AbbVie, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, UCB Pharma, and Takeda; Sender Jankiel Miszputen has received fees for serving as speaker or as a consultant for Farmoquimica, Janssen and Marjan, and received research funding from Ache, Roche and Takeda; Cristina Flores has received speaker fees from Janssen, Takeda, and AbbVie; and received fees for serving as an advisory board member for Janssen; Wilson Roberto Catapani has received fees for serving as a speaker or as an advisory board member for Janssen and Takeda; Jose Miguel Luz Parente has received speaker fees from Takeda; Mauro Bafutto has received speaker fees from Takeda, AbbVie, Janssen, UCB and Farmoquimica; and received fees for serving as an advisory board member for AbbVie and Janssen; Jose Joaquim Ribeiro da Rocha has received speaker fees from Nestle; Marley Ribeiro Feitosa has received speaker fees from Janssen and Nestle, and fees for scientific congresses’ support by Janssen, AbbVie, Takeda, Ferring and Nestle and was a subinvestigator in scientific studies sponsored by Janssen, AbbVie and Takeda; Rogerio Saad Hossne has received speaker fees from AbbVie, Janssen, Pfizer and Takeda; Francisco Guilherme Cancela e Penna has received speaker fees from Janssen, Takeda, AbbVie and UCB; Tarcia Nogueira Ferreira Gomes has received research funding from Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior and Takeda; and has received speaker fees from Janssen; Rodrigo Bremer Nones has received speaker fees from AbbVie, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, Nestle, Novartis, Pfizer, UCB Pharma and Takeda; Antonio Scafuto Scotton has received speaker fees from Janssen, Novartis, AbbVie, MSD, and EMS, and has received research funding from Janssen, Novartis, AbbVie, Roche, Pfizer, Bristol, Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Anthera, AstraZeneca, GSK, UCB, Sanofi, Takeda, Parexel, IQVIA, PPD, PRA, ICON, INP Research, Covance, and In Trials; Rosana Fusaro Caratin was an employee at Takeda Pharmaceuticals Brazil at the time of the study and when this manuscript was written; Juliana Tosta Senra is an employee at Takeda Pharmaceuticals Brazil; Julio Maria Fonseca Chebli has received speaker fees from AbbVie, Janssen, UCB Pharma and Takeda; Heda Maria Barska dos Santos Amarante, Roberto Kaiser Junior, Odery Ramos, Carolina Dias Gonçalves, Isabella de Miranda Guimaraes, Omar Feres, Mikaell Alexandre Gouvea Faria, Pedro Ferrari Sales da Cunha, Mírian Perpétua Palha Dias Parente declare that they have no conflict of interest
(©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)