Telehealth Does Not Appear to Raise the Risk of IBD-Related Hospitalizations

Telehealth-delivered care does not increase the risk of hospitalizations among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to a study published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

In a case-control study conducted within the Veterans Health Administration, researchers examined patients with IBD who experienced an IBD-related hospitalization between April 2021 and July 2022. These patients were matched with controls who were not hospitalized, based on factors such as age, sex, race, Charlson comorbidity index, IBD type, previous emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and outpatient gastroenterology visits in the prior year. The primary variable of interest was the percentage of outpatient care delivered through telehealth (video or phone) in the year preceding the index hospitalization. The study used conditional logistic regression to compare the risk of hospitalization associated with telehealth use.

The study included 534 patients with IBD-related hospitalizations and 534 matched controls. The findings revealed that a higher percentage of telehealth-delivered outpatient care was associated with a lower likelihood of hospitalization during the study period. Specifically, for every 10% increase in telehealth use, the odds of hospitalization decreased (odds ratio 0.97, 95% confidence interval 0.94–1.00; P = 0.03).

These results suggest that telehealth-delivered care does not increase the risk of IBD-related hospitalizations, providing reassurance that telehealth is a suitable option for managing patients with complex chronic conditions like IBD.

Reference
Cohen-Mekelburg S, Valicevic A, Lin LA, Saini SD, Kim HM, Adams MA. Inflammatory bowel disease hospitalizations are similar for patients receiving televisit-delivered outpatient care and those receiving traditional in-person care. Am J Gastroenterol. 2024;119(8):1555-1562. doi:10.14309/ajg.0000000000002703