Risk of infection in elderly patients with inflammatory bowel disease under biologics: A prospective, multicenter, observational, one-year follow-up comparative study.

OBJECTIVES

The emergence of biologics has improved the course of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in the elderly population despite a potential higher risk of infections. We conducted a one-year, prospective, multicenter, observational study to determine the frequency of occurrence of at least one infectious event in elderly IBD patients under anti-TNF therapy compared with that in elderly patients under vedolizumab or ustekinumab therapies.

METHODS

All IBD patients over 65 years exposed to anti-TNF, vedolizumab or ustekinumab therapies were included. The primary endpoint was the prevalence of at least one infection during the whole one year follow-up.

RESULTS

Among the 207 consecutive elderly IBD patients prospectively enrolled, 113 were treated with anti-TNF and 94 with vedolizumab (n=63) or ustekinumab (n=31) (median age 71 years, 112 Crohn's disease). The Charlson index was similar between patients under anti-TNF and those under vedolizumab or ustekinumab as well as the proportion of patients under combination therapy and under concomitant steroid therapy did not differ between both both groups. The prevalence of infections was similar in patients under anti-TNF and in those under vedolizumab or ustekinumab (29% versus 28%, respectively; p=0.81). There was no difference in terms of type and severity of infection and of infection-related hospitalization rate. In multivariate regression analysis, only the Charlson comorbidity index (≥ 1) was identified as a significant and independent risk factor of infection (p=0.03).

CONCLUSION

Around 30 % of elderly patients with IBD under biologics experienced at least one infection during the one-year study follow-up period. The risk of occurrence of infection does not differ between anti-TNF and vedolizumab or ustekinumab therapies, and only the associated comorbidity was linked with the risk of infection.