High incidence of inflammatory bowel disease in Northern Australia: a prospective community population-based Australian incidence study in the Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday region.

This is the first study to define the incidence of IBD in a Northern Australian cohort and to allow a comparison between North and Southern Australia. The IBD crude is the highest reported in Australia. Like others, we found a high and low incidence of upper gastrointestinal Crohn's disease and complicated disease at diagnosis respectively, likely reflective of the increased availability and early uptake of endoscopic procedures.