Original ResearchClinical—Alimentary TractBurden of Gastrointestinal Disease in the United States: 2012 Update
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
We compiled the most recently available statistics on GI symptoms, quality of life, outpatient diagnoses, hospitalizations, cost, cancer, mortality, and endoscopic utilization from a variety of publicly and privately held databases. We utilized limited data sets with no direct patient identifiers. Data use agreements were signed as necessary. The methods used to compile the data from the respective source database are detailed below.
Symptoms and Diagnoses
The leading GI symptoms prompting an outpatient clinic visit in 2009 are listed in Table 1. Abdominal pain is the most common GI symptom with an estimated 15.9 million visits in 2009. Other leading symptoms at outpatient visits were diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, and nausea.
The most common physician diagnoses for GI disorders in outpatient clinic visits in 2009 are listed in Table 2. Gastroesophageal reflux was the most frequent outpatient diagnosis with almost 9 million visits in 2009.
Discussion
As detailed above, the toll of GI and liver disease on the US population is extensive. Using the most comprehensive statistical resources available, we present a broad and detailed picture of the current challenges facing these patients and our specialty. Several trends merit special mention.
The toll of C difficile infection is large and becoming more prominent. C difficile hospitalizations have increased by 237% since 2000. This finding is consistent with the documented increase in C difficile
References (22)
- et al.
Burden of digestive diseases in the United States part I: overall and upper gastrointestinal diseases
Gastroenterology
(2009) - et al.
The burden of selected digestive diseases in the United States
Gastroenterology
(2002) - et al.
Digestive and liver diseases statistics, 2004
Gastroenterology
(2004) - et al.
Burden of digestive diseases in the United States part II: lower gastrointestinal diseases
Gastroenterology
(2009) - et al.
Burden of digestive diseases in the United StatesPart III: liver, biliary tract, and pancreas
Gastroenterology
(2009) - et al.
A review of mortality due to Clostridium difficile infection
J Infect
(2010) Increases in morbid obesity in the USA: 2000–2005
Public Health
(2007)A population prevalence of Barrett's esophagus—finally
Gastroenterology
(2005)- et al.
Specialized intestinal metaplasia, dysplasia, and cancer of the esophagus and esophagogastric junction: prevalence and clinical data
Gastroenterology
(1999) - et al.
Current capacity for endoscopic colorectal cancer screening in the United States: data from the National Cancer Institute Survey of Colorectal Cancer Screening Practices
Am J Med
(2003)
Cited by (0)
This article has an accompanying continuing medical education activity on page e16. Learning Objective: Upon completion of this CME exercise, successful learners will be able to summarize the most recent statistics on key gastrointestinal morbidity, mortality, and cost in adults in the United States.
Conflicts of interest The authors disclose no conflicts.
Funding Supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (T32 DK07634). Selected data in this manuscript were obtained from the Clinical Outcomes and Research Initiative National Endoscopic Database (CORI-NED), with support from National Institutes of Health (NIDDK) U01-DK57132-01. In addition, CORI has received support from the following entities to support the infrastructure of the practice-based network: AstraZeneca, Novartis, Bard International, Pentax USA, ProVation, Endosoft, GIVEN Imaging, and Ethicon. The commercial entities had no involvement in this research.