RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological features of hospitalizations for Crohn's disease in Public Hospitals of Paris ("Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris") between 1981 and 1992. METHODS: Data concerning hospital stays were obtained from the OTARIE file, containing for each hospitalization descriptive data about the patient (including sex, birth date and locality, residence locality) and the hospital (including the identity of hospital department, the route of admission into the department and discharge from the department, the main medical diagnosis). RESULTS: There was a 2.5-fold increase of the number of hospital stays for Crohn's disease from the beginning to the end of the study period. Concomitantly, the women/men sex-ratio increased from 0.99 to 1.39. The rate of hospital stays lasting less than 24 hours increased at the end of the study period, reaching 10.6% in 1992. Among the patients born out of the area of Paris, there was a significantly higher proportion of patients native from the North of France. CONCLUSION: The prominent epidemiological features concerning the hospital stays for Crohn's disease in Public Hospitals of Paris between 1981 and 1992 were: a) a 2.5-fold increase of the number of patients hospitalized per year between 1981 and 1992; b) a concomitant increase of the sex-ratio in favour of women; c) the existence of a significant higher proportion of patients originary from the North of France.
