Obesity in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Is Associated with Early Readmissions Characterised by an Increased Systems and Patient-level Burden

Background and Aims Rates of obesity are rising in patients with inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]. We conducted a US population-based study to determine the effects of obesity on outcomes in hospitalised patients with IBD. Methods We searched the Nationwide Readmissions Database 2016-2017 to identify all adult patients hospitalised for IBD, using ICD-10 codes. We compared obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 30) vs non-obese [BMI Results We identified 143 190 patients with IBD, of whom 9.1% were obese. Obesity was independently associated with higher all-cause readmission at 30 days {18% vs 13% (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.16, p = 0.005)} and 90 days (29% vs 21% [aOR 1.27, p Conclusions Obesity in IBD appears to be associated with increased early readmission, characterised by a higher burden, despite the introduction of weight-based therapeutics. Prevention of obesity should be a focus in the treatment of IBD to decrease readmission and health care burden.