Gender-related differences in clinical course of crohn?s disease in an Asian population: a retrospective cohort review.

Context: Data from Asian populations about gender-related differences in Crohn's disease are few. Objectives This study was to analyze the clinical characteristics between women and men affected by Crohn's disease.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study to analyze consecutive Crohn's disease patients from Jan 2000 to Dec 2012. Clinical and phenotypic characteristics and treatment outcomes were evaluated.

Results: 79 patients (55 male and two of them with positive family history) were diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Ileocolonic disease and inflammatory lesion was the most dominant site of involvement and disease behavior respectively in both men and women. Apart from higher frequency of nausea (45.83 vs 23.64%, P 0.024) and lower body mass index (19.44 vs 22.03 kg/m2, P 0.003) reported in women, no significant gender-related differences in clinical characteristics were observed. Women were more associated with delay use of immunosuppressive therapy (12 vs 36 months, P = 0.028), particularly for those aged less than 40 years old (85 vs 62.6%, P = 0.023). Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed that active smoking (HR, 4.679; 95% CI, 1.03-21.18) and delayed use of immunosuppressive therapy (HR, 4.13; 95% CI, 1.01-16.88) were only independent risk factors associated with increased risk of complications.

Conclusions: There were no significant gender-specific differences in clinical and phenotypic characteristics between male and female Crohn's disease patients. Smoking history and delay use of immunosuppressive therapy were associated with higher risk of complications.