Predictors of clinical relapse in patients with new-onset inflammatory bowel disease: A retrospective single-center study

Background and Aims: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) usually follows a pattern of more or less frequent relapses of alterable duration, interspersed with periods of remission. Various clinical predictors have been broadly studied, but the research study populations reported are mostly from Western countries. Methods: From January 2013 to December 2018, 106 new-onset Crohn's disease (CD) patients and 76 new-onset ulcerative colitis (UC) patients were followed up for a median of 12 months or until relapse. The predictors of clinical relapse were analyzed according to demographic, clinical, histological, endoscopic, and imaging variables. Results: In multivariate analysis, predictors of relapse were age of onset <35 years (hazard ratio [HR] = 5.236; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.252–22.222; P = 0.023) in CD patients and poor medication adherence (HR = 2.070; 95% CI 1.018–4.202; P = 0.044) in UC patients. Conclusion: Younger age of onset and poor medication adherence increases the risk of clinical relapse in CD and UC, respectively.