Differences in inflammatory bowel diseases between East and West: a Chinese perspective

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a traditionally “western disease”, has recently been reported to have risen in incidence in China. We summarize differences between Chinese and Western IBD based on relevant literatures published in both Chinese and English.

Relevant references published in English were collected from an electronic database via PubMed and relevant references published in Chinese were also collected.

Emerging clinical epidemiological data have shown a striking rise in the incidence rate of IBD in Mainland China over the last two decades. Although the current incidence rate of IBD in Mainland China is still lower than that in Western countries, the associated disease burden might be much heavier than previously thought due to the huge population. Clinical data have shown that disease characteristics (e.g., age of onset, male/female ratio, and location and disease severity) of Chinese IBD patients are different to those of Western IBD patients. Unlike the widely used bioimmunotherapeutic agents in Western countries, the management of IBD in China relies predominately on aminosalicylates and corticosteroids. The use of bioimmunotherapeutic agents is limited to a small number of IBD patients in China. Currently, many challenges remain, including the lack of properly trained IBD specialists, poor information availability to support patient self-management, and inappropriate treatment of some patients.

Based on the current findings, the disease burden, characteristics, and treatment of Chinese IBD patients are slightly different to those of Western IBD patients. There are still great improvement requirements for the clinical management of IBD in China.