AF Peery et al. Gastroenterol 2022: 162: 621-644. Burden and Cost of Gastrointestinal, Liver, and Pancreatic Diseases in the United States: Update 2021

Using several national surveys (2016-2018), the authors provide data on GI diagnoses and expenditures for adults and children

Key findings:

• Gastrointestinal health care expenditures totaled $119.6 billion in 2018.
• Annually, there were more than 36.8 million ambulatory visits for gastrointestinal symptoms and 43.4 million ambulatory visits with a primary gastrointestinal diagnosis
• A total of 22.2 million gastrointestinal endoscopies were performed, and 284,844 new gastrointestinal cancers were diagnosed
• Gastrointestinal diseases and cancers caused 255,407 deaths

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• Abdominal pain, reflux, and constipation are the leading GI diagnoses
• GI bleeding, cholelithiasis, pancreatitis and liver disease are the most common diagnoses associated with admission to the hospital
• In the pediatric age group, appendicitis, intestinal infection and inflammatory bowel disease are the principal diagnosis associated with GI admissions
• Trends in GI cancer frequency over the last three decades are shown (including ethnicity)
• Among non-malignancy, alcohol-associated liver disease followed by cirrhosis and GI bleeding were most common causes of death in GI/Liver categories
• Data on the frequency of colonoscopies and transplants is provided