A Cross Sectional Descriptive Research On Prevalence Of Digestive Diseases In Moroccan Population

Background: Gastrointestinal diseases are a real public health problem, that decreases the quality of life. The aim of the present study is to investigate gender and age differences in the sociodemographic and clinical profile of digestive diseases in Morocco. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional descriptive study including 569 patients, during a period of four years, from January 2016 to December 2019. We included all patients with digestive disorders, at the gastroenterology department of a Moroccan Hospital in Rabat. Subjects were selected through simple random sampling method. Data was collected using questionnaire. The studied parameters were the age, the gender and the type of disease. Results: During the period, we registered 569 cases of digestive diseases. Men were more affected, 53% were male and 47% were female with a sex-ratio of 1.13. Moreover, the most concerned age group was [45-65 [ years then ≥65 years. The average age was 56.8 ± 22.8 years. The most common digestive diseases in our target population were Crohn’s disease (39 % of cases), gastritis with 32%, followed by colitis (10 %) and cirrhosis with 8 %. There is a statistically significant association between age and type of disease (chi-square = 227, p=0. These diseases mainly affect the age group between 45 and 64. Conclusion: The chronic nature of many of these diseases result in a significant impact in terms of medical care utilization, direct and indirect economic costs, and quality of lif