Key clinical point: Risk for serious infection requiring hospitalization was 9-fold higher in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) compared with the general population.
Major finding: Risk for serious infection was significantly higher among children with IBD vs the reference group (hazard ratio [HR], 9.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 8.56-10.5). In addition to a higher risk for gastrointestinal infections (HR, 31.8; 95% CI, 25.6-39.3), children with IBD were at a substantially higher risk for opportunistic infections (HR, 11.8; 95% CI, 6.17-22.5) and sepsis (HR, 26.1; 95% CI, 15.6-43.7).
Study details: Findings are from an analysis of 5,767 children with incident IBD diagnosed before 18 years of age who were compared with 58,418 matched reference individuals.
Disclosures: No funding interests were declared. O Olén, P Malmborg, and J Järås declared receiving research grants and/or serving as a speaker for various sources.
Source: Ludvigsson JF et al. J Pediatr. 2021 Jun 30. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.06.076 .
