People Living in Rural Households are at Lower Risk of Developing Inflammatory Bowel Disease

• The findings showed that children, especially those under the age of 10, experience a protective effect against IBD if they live in a rural household.
• The findings also strengthen the understanding- environmental risk factors that lead people to IBD may have a stronger effect in children than adults

Canada, July 27, 2017: According to a new study, living in rural households decreases the chances of a person developing an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), in particular, young children and adolescents. The study has been undertaken by researchers at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), and the Canadian Gastro-Intestinal Epidemiology Consortium (CanGIEC).

The findings showed that children, especially those under the age of 10, experience a protective effect against IBD if they live in a rural household.

Lead author Eric Benchimol from CHEO Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre, in Ottawa, said, "This effect is particularly strong in children who are raised in a rural household in the first five years of life. These are some important findings since our previous work shows that the number of very young children being diagnosed with IBD has jumped in the past 20 years." "The findings also strengthen our understanding that environmental risk factors that lead people to IBD may have a stronger effect in children than adults," he added.

Why there is need for good Home-care Health System in Rural Areas?

As per the study, 45,567 patients are diagnosed with IBD; 6,662 of those patients diagnosed with IBD were living in rural households and 38,905 were living in urban households from 1999 to 2010 in four Canadian provinces (Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Ontario).The overall incidence of IBD was 30.72 per 1, 00,000 person-years in the rural population compared with 33.16 per 100,000 in the urban population.

Canada has one of the highest rates of IBD in the world, with most cases diagnosed in individuals between the ages of 15 and 30, and an increased incidence seen in children under the age of 10."The new study demonstrates the importance of early life exposure in altering the risk of IBD and that needs further study," Benchimol noted

The researchers suggest that living in a rural or urban environment can change the intestinal micro biome due to different exposures early in life and may result in decreased or increased risk. The research appears in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

– by Kritika Dua of NewsGram. Twitter @DKritika08

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