Frailty Is Associated with Infection Risk in Immunosuppressed IBD Patients

The risk for infection is elevated in patients on chronic immunosuppression, but apart from older age, there are few useful variables for predicting which patients are at highest risk.

In a cohort of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) identified within a New England regional healthcare system, researchers studied whether frailty is associated with the risk for infection after immunosuppression initiation. They defined frailty as the presence of at least one ICD-9 code for frailty (based on codes used in a validated frailty risk score) in the 2 years prior to initiating an anti–tumor necrosis factor (TNF) agent or immunomodulator. The primary outcome was the occurrence of an ICD-9 code for an infection in the first year after star…