Abstract
Changes in the number of people being diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may give clues to the cause of the disease. Data from medical records found 428 newly diagnosed patients in Otago, New Zealand, between 2014 and 2024. Patients with Crohn’s disease had a lower median age at diagnosis (25.5 years) compared to those with ulcerative colitis (40 years). Most patients (87%) were of New Zealand European ethnicity. The average annual incidence rate of IBD was 19.7 per 100,000 people. This was higher than previous IBD incidence data collected from the same region between 1996 and 2013, which showed an average annual incidence rate of 14.2 per 100,000 people.