To describe the characteristics of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) in non-academic hospitals in France and to evaluate how therapeutic practices changed between 1999 and 2013.

During 2 weeks in September 2013, we solicited disease and treatment information for CD patients seen by gastroenterologists in 57 French non-academic hospitals. In four groups of patients defined according to the date of CD diagnosis (<1999, 1999–2003, 2004–2008, and 2009–2013), the use of immunosuppressor (IS) and anti-TNF treatments during the first 5 years following diagnosis of CD was compared using the Kaplan–Meier method.

739 consecutive CD patients (median age at diagnosis 25.4 years) were included in the survey. CD location was ileal for 31%, colonic for 21%, and ileocolonic for 45%. CD phenotypes were non-penetrating/non-stricturing (58.7%), stricturing (26.9%), and penetrating (12.7%), with perianal lesions in 26.1%. The proportions of patients who began IS or anti-TNF treatment within 5 years of diagnosis increased significantly from 18% and 0%, respectively, in <1999 (n=170) to 52% and 23% in 1999–2003 (n=120), 66% and 70% in 2004–2008 (n=155), and 75% and 100% in 2009–2013 (n=294; P<0.0001).

In this French non-academic hospital cohort of CD patients, the proportions of patients being treated with anti-TNF or IS therapy in the first 5 years after diagnosis both increased sharply since 1999.