{
  "abstract": "Preliminary data suggested a rise in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on this, the present study examined international PIBD incidence trends before, during, and after the pandemic using consistent methodology across all countries participating in a prospective PIBD-SET Quality Safety Study, 1 enabling reliable comparisons of international data. The aim was to determine whether incidence rates changed significantly during the pandemic years (2020–2022) compared with pre- and post-pandemic years.To achieve this, participating centres annually reported new PIBD cases alongside the geographical regions from which patients were referred. Denominator populations were derived from Eurostat NUTS3 data, allowing standardised incidence calculations. Centres using e-databases were analysed separately due to greater accuracy. Populations for the ten largest contributing countries ranged from 500,000 (Czech Republic) to 6.3 million (UK), totalling more than 19 million children. To assess whether PIBD incidence differed across years at the international level, Kruskal–Wallis tests and Dunn’s post hoc comparisons were performed. Country-level trends were also examined using mixed-effects linear regression, whereby ‘year’ was the fixed effect and ‘country’ was the random effect to account for between-country heterogeneity.The results showed that the international, annual incidence differed overall (Kruskal–Wallis p ≤ 0.009), although no individual pairwise comparison remained significant after correction, implying a gradual temporal trend. When all countries were included, incidence increased from 2019 to 2021, decreased in 2022, and rose to its highest level in 2024. Patterns were similar for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The apparent 2022 decrease likely reflects differences in reporting and a greater reliance on e-datasets. Among the ten largest countries, the PIBD incidence generally increased from 2019 to 2024, and mixed-effects models confirmed that ‘year’ was not a significant predictor (p ≥ 0.54). Individual country trends varied: four showed gradual increases, four fluctuated, and two experienced spikes in 2021-2022.Overall, the PIBD incidence increased gradually from 2019 to 2024. Fluctuations are unlikely to reflect genuine epidemiological shifts, supporting an overall rise independent of COVID-related effects.Reference Klomberg RCW, Hellendoorn AE, Kemos P, et al. Rare and severe adverse events in children with inflammatory bowel disease: analysis of data from the PIBD-SETQuality safety registry. Lancet Child Adolesc Health 2024;8(6):422–432. doi:10.1016/S2352-4642(24)00078-6Abstract LBA10 Figure 1PIBD incidence rates (2019-2024) calculated using e-data",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Centre for Immunobiology, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "SO Edwards"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Centre for Immunobiology, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "P Kemos"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Erasmus University Medical Centre-Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "RCW Klomberg"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Erasmus University Medical Centre-Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "AE Camman"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Erasmus University Medical Centre-Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "L de Ridder"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Centre for Immunobiology, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "NM Croft"
    }
  ],
  "title": "LBA10 International trends in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease incidence before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic",
  "uid": "77d5bf6c-662c-5dad-a0a9-361805cb3f1c"
}