Obesity Is Associated with Increased Risk of Colectomy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients Hospitalized with Clostridium Difficile Infection

Background: Obesity and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are associated with increased risk of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). The effect of obesity on IBD course and development of complications is poorly understood. We performed this study to examine the effect of obesity on CDI-related morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients with IBD.

Methods: We used data from the National Inpatient Sample across five study years (2010-2014) to identify patients ≥ 18 years hospitalized with both CDI and IBD. We compared the outcomes of in-hospital mortality, partial or total colectomy, hospital length of stay, and hospital charges between obese and non-obese IBD-CDI patients. Analysis included univariate and multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses.

Results: Of 304,298 hospitalized patients with IBD, 13,517 (4.4%) patients had CDI. Of these, 996 (7.4%) patients were obese. Obese IBD-CDI patients had a higher risk of colectomy (adjusted odds ratio, AOR 1.60, 95% CI 1.30-1.96; p < 0.001), longer hospital length of stay (difference 0.8 days, 95% CI 0.02-1.58; p = 0.04), and higher hospital charges (difference $11,051, 95% CI 1939-20,163; p = 0.02) than non-obese IBD-CDI patients, but no significant difference in mortality was found between the two groups.

Conclusions: Obesity is associated with a 60% increase in the risk of colectomy, longer hospital stay, and higher charges in IBD patients hospitalized with CDI. Further epidemiological and clinical studies are needed to confirm these findings.