Determinants of Healthcare Utilization Among Veterans with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

BACKGROUND: Identifying patient-level and disease-specific predictors of healthcare utilization in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may allow targeted interventions to reduce costs and improve outcomes.

AIM: To identify demographic and clinical predictors of healthcare utilization among veterans with IBD.

METHODS: We conducted a single-center cross-sectional study of veterans with IBD from 1998 to 2010. Demographics and disease characteristics were abstracted by manual chart review. Annual number of IBD-related visits was estimated by dividing total number of IBD-related inpatient and outpatient encounters by duration of IBD care. Associations between predictors of utilization were determined using stepwise multivariable linear regression.

RESULTS: Overall, 676 patients (56% ulcerative colitis (UC), 42% Crohn's disease (CD), and 2% IBD unclassified (IBDU)) had mean 3.08 IBD-related encounters annually. CD patients had 3.59 encounters compared to 2.73 in UC (p < 0.01). In the multivariable model, Hispanics had less visits compared to Caucasians and African-Americans (2.09 vs. 3.09 vs. 3.42), current smokers had more visits than never smokers (3.54 vs. 2.43, p = 0.05), and first IBD visit at age <40 had more visits than age >65 (3.84 vs. 1.75, p = 0.04). UC pancolitis was associated with more visits than proctitis (3.47 vs. 2.15, p = 0.04). CD penetrating phenotype was associated with more encounters than inflammatory type (4.68 vs. 4.15, p = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS: We found that current tobacco use, age <40 at first IBD visit, UC pancolitis, and CD fistuilizing phenotype in addition to Caucasian and African-American race were independent predictors of increased healthcare utilization. Interventions should be targeted at these groups to decrease healthcare utilization and costs.