Older Adult Patients Use More Aminosalicylate Monotherapy Compared With Younger Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Challenge

Elderly IBD patients represent a clinically distinct and growing subpopulation whose medication use patterns—including aminosalicylate monotherapy and biologic underutilization—had not been systematically characterized against younger patients in a large real-world US cohort.

Solution

The TARGET-IBD registry was analyzed to compare medication use distributions and predictors of biologic use across age categories (<30, 30–64, ≥65 years) in adult IBD patients, characterizing the pattern of aminosalicylate monotherapy in elderly patients and the factors associated with biologic underutilization in this group.

Impact

Demonstrating that elderly IBD patients are significantly more likely to receive aminosalicylate monotherapy and less likely to receive biologic therapy provides evidence of potential undertreatment in this population, informing age-inclusive trial design and label claims for IBD advanced therapies.