Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Antibiotic Exposure: An Association Worth Knowing About

To contact us Click HERE
Trying to understand factors that are associated with an increased risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a subject of interest to many readers of our journal and in turn families of patients who experience this chronic gastrointestinal illness. It is for that reason I call your attention to an article by Kronman et al. (doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-3886) who report on a retrospective cohort study in the UK of more than 1 million children followed for the development of IBD in the setting of those exposed and not exposed to anti-aerobic antibiotics. The younger a child was when receiving an antibiotic, and the more courses received, the stronger the association with new onset IBD. As to what antibiotics demonstrated this association, and how usage of these drugs might play a role in the development of IBD, these are two great reasons to digest the information contained in this intriguing study.