Biologics Appear to Increase Risk of Complications Among Hispanic Patients With IBD

Patients who are Hispanic appear to have a higher risk of hospitalization, surgery, and serious infections when treated with biologic therapy for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) than patients who are not Hispanic, according to study findings published online ahead of print in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

The study included data for 240 Hispanic adults with IBD who were treated with tumor necrosis factor α antagonists, ustekinumab, or vedolizumab at 5 academic sites in California between 2010 and 2017. Researchers compared their risk of all-cause hospitalization, IBD-related surgery, and serious infections with 960 non-Hispanic adults who also received biologic treatment for IBD.

Hispanic patients tended to be younger (37 ± 15 years vs 40 ± 16 years) but had a higher burden of comorbidities compared with non-Hispanic patients, researchers reported. Patterns of medication use, inflammation burden, and hospitalizations did not differ between the groups at baseline.

Within 1 year of initiating a new biologic, however, rates of hospitalization were 31% among Hispanic patients compared with 23% among non-Hispanic patients, and rates of IBD-related surgery were 7.1% among Hispanic patients compared with 4.6% among non-Hispanic patients, the study showed. Researchers also identified a trend toward higher risk of serious infections among Hispanic patients: 8.8% compared with 4.9% among non-Hispanic patients.

“Future studies are needed to investigate the biological, social, and environmental drivers of these differences,” researchers wrote.

—Jolynn Tumolo

Reference:

Nguyen NH, Luo J, Paul P, et al. Unplanned health care utilization and safety of biologic therapy in Hispanic Vs non-Hispanic patients with IBD: a CA-IBD cohort study. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. Published online ahead of print, May 27, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2022.05.008