The Time Course of Diagnostic Delay in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Over the Last Sixty Years: An Italian Multicentre Study

Background and Aims: Inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] patients are still under-diagnosed or diagnosed with serious delay. We examined whether diagnostic delay [DD] in IBD has changed over the last 60 years, and explored the risk factors of longer DD. Methods: In total, 3392 IBD patients recorded in the registry of four IBD Italian centres were divided according to the year of diagnosis into a historical cohort [HC: 1955-84] and modern cohort [MC: 1985-2014]. DD, i.e. time lapse between onset of symptoms indicative of IBD and definitive diagnosis, was divided into four sub-periods [0-6, 7-12, 13-24, >24 months], which were correlated with age and disease location/behaviour at diagnosis. Results: Median DD in IBD was 3.0 months, it was significantly [P 24 months was significantly [P 40 years (CD: odds ratio 1.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.31-2.28, P 24 months. Conclusions: DD duration has not changed over the last 60 years in Italy, but the number of IBD patients with a longer DD significantly decreased. Older age at diagnosis and a complicated disease at CD diagnosis are risk factors for longer DD.