Clinical epidemiology of ulcerative colitis in Arabs based on the Montréal classification

Table 1 Patient characteristics

Variables	(n = 394)	95%CI
Gender
Male	51%	46-56
Female	49%	44-54
Nationality
Saudi	94%	91-96
Non-Saudi	6%	3.7-8.4
Environment
Urban	91.6%	88.7-94.5
Rural	8.3%	5.4-11.2
Mean BMI	22.6	22.5-22.7
Mean age (yr)	30.1	28.9-31.4
Mean duration of disease (yr)	8	7.3-8.5
Smoking
Smokers	7.8%	4.9-10.7
Non-Smokers	92.2%	89.2-95.1
Course
Infrequent	77.5%	73.2-82.2
Frequent	17.3%	13.3-21.5
Chronic	4.8%	2.4-7.1
Steroid use
Once	33.5%	28.7-39.1
Twice	10.8%	7.4-14.3
Three	8.3%	5.3-11.4
More than three times	8.6%	5.6-11.8
Never	37.5%	32.6-43.3
Number of relatives with CD
First degree	0.6%	0.2-1.5
Second degree	0.6%	0.2-1.5
Number of relatives with UC
First degree	7%	3.3-10.7
Second degree	1.8%	0.4-3.3
Number of relatives with IBDU
First degree	0.6%	0.2-1.5
Second degree	0.3%	0.3-0.9
Number of relatives with colorectal cancer
First degree	0.9%	0.1-2.0
Second degree	0.9%	0.1-2.0

BMI: Body Mass Index; CD: Crohn's disease; UC: Ulcerative colitis; IBDU: Inflammatory bowel disease unclassified; Infrequent relapser: Defined as patients with 1 or less relapses per year.