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Published on: September 22, 2019
Immune-mediated diseases and risk of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis: a prospective cohort study
Chun-Han Lo1,2,3, Hamed Khalili2,3, Paul Lochhead2,3
1Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Background:
Although immune-mediated diseases (IMDs) including inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are known to cluster, to what extent this is due to common environmental influences is unknown.
Aim:
To examine the incidence of IBD in individuals with another IMD.
Methods:
We used data from the prospective Nurses' Health Study II cohort (1995-2017) to examine the effect of diagnoses of several common IMDs on subsequent risk of Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC) using Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for detailed diet and lifestyle confounders.
Results:
We documented 132 cases of CD and 186 cases of UC over 2 016 163 person-years of follow-up (median age at IBD diagnosis 50 years). Compared to participants with no history of IMD, the HRs of CD for those with 1 and ≥ 2 IMDs were 2.57 (95% CI 1.77-3.74) and 2.74 (95% CI 1.36 to 5.49), respectively (Ptrend < 0.0001). This association was only modestly attenuated by adjustment for environmental risk factors (HR 2.35 and 2.46, respectively). The risk of UC was not increased, with multivariable-adjusted HRs of 1.22 (95% CI 0.85-1.76) and 1.33 (95% CI 0.67-2.65) for those with 1 and ≥ 2 IMDs, respectively, compared to those with none (Ptrend 0.16) (Pheterogeneity comparing CD and UC 0.037). Asthma, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis and rosacea were individually associated with higher risk of CD (HR ranging from 2.15 to 3.39) but not UC.
Conclusions:
Individuals with one or more IMDs are at an increased risk for CD but not UC.
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