Epidemiology of Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative colitis is a bowel inflammation disorder with an incidence of roughly 15 per 100,000 people per year in North America. The prevalence in 2023 is estimated to be about 400 per 100,000 people, affecting approximately 1.5 million people currently. Diagnosis is typically based on symptoms like rectal bleeding, diarrhea, and bowel urgency, with additional diagnostic tests such as fecal calprotectin, stool cultures, and sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy with biopsies to confirm the diagnosis.