The purpose of our study was to analyze hospitalizations for inflammatory bowel disease noted in the Department of Gastroenterology, Medical University of Lublin. Cases of patients hospitalized in the Department of Gastroenterology, Medical University of Lublin in 1997-2007 were retrospectively analyzed. The material studied included patients' case histories and medical records that were used to select such patients whose hospitalizations were caused by ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Analysis distinguished two groups: rural and urban inhabitants.
In 1997-2007 there were 1,825 hospitalizations for the inflammatory bowel disease noted at our clinic, which was 12.15% of all hospitalizations: 8.54% patients with ulcerative colitis and 3.61% with Crohn’s disease. Among them, 30.47% were rural inhabitants while 69.53% of patients lived in towns.
The observation data demonstrated that there has been a significant increase of patients with inflammatory bowel disease in the last decade, and the patients originating in urban areas were more frequent than those from rural regions. This may be related to environmental differences between these two population groups.