{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T14:43:35Z","timestamp":1788965015158,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"21","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,28]],"date-time":"2025-10-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1761609600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can lead to zinc deficiency, which plays a critical role in immune function and tissue repair. This study aims to determine the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and impact of zinc deficiency in IBD patients. Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients aged \u226514 years with confirmed IBD and available zinc level measurement. Zinc deficiency was defined as a level &lt;10.6 \u00b5mol\/L. Primary outcomes included the prevalence of zinc deficiency and the characterization of the clinical profile of patients with zinc deficiency. Secondary outcomes included IBD-related hospitalizations, emergency room visits, surgeries, and complications (anemia, small bowel obstruction, new perianal disease, intra-abdominal abscess). Results: Among 447 patients (54.4% male; 79.2% Crohn\u2019s disease) with a median age of 29 years (IQR: 22\u201338), 45.6% had zinc deficiency (83.8% Crohn\u2019s disease). Zinc-deficient patients had higher C-reactive protein and fecal calprotectin (both p &lt; 0.001) levels, and were more likely to be on corticosteroids (p = 0.04). Zinc deficiency was associated with higher rates of IBD-related hospitalizations (48.0% vs. 17.7%), surgeries (19.6% vs. 5.8%), complications (30.4% vs. 12.4%), and emergency room visits (40.2% vs. 17.3%) (all p &lt; 0.001). Upon multivariate analysis, predictors of IBD-related hospitalization were zinc deficiency (OR 2.42, 95% CI 1.07\u20135.48, p = 0.03) and low albumin (OR 9.03, 95% CI 3.38\u201324.15, p &lt; 0.001). Zinc deficiency was associated with IBD-related surgeries (OR 5.23, 95% CI 1.27\u201321.45, p = 0.02) and complications (OR 3.98, 95% CI 1.52\u201310.41, p = 0.005). Conclusions: Zinc deficiency is prevalent in patients with IBD, associated with a high inflammatory burden, and was linked to worse clinical outcomes after controlling for markers of inflammation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu17213378","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,28]],"date-time":"2025-10-28T13:59:36Z","timestamp":1761659976000},"page":"3378","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Prevalence and Impact of Zinc Deficiency on Clinical Outcomes in Inflammatory Bowel Disease"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Hend","family":"Almuhaya","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Raghad","family":"Alsalamah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Asma","family":"Sallam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amgad","family":"Alonazy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Atheer","family":"AlAwwad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Scientific Computing, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3675-6806","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gamal","family":"Mohamed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Scientific Computing, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abdulelah","family":"Almutairdi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh 11533, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mashary","family":"Attamimi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6102-9267","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Badr","family":"Al-Bawardy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh 11533, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Digestive Diseases, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"1378","article-title":"Pathophysiology of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases","volume":"384","author":"Chang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Reply. 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