In a new study, researchers found that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in adulthood is linked to higher death risk.
This is true even though the actual number of deaths has been falling.
The research was conducted by a team from Karolinska Institutet.
In the study, the team analyzed data using the Swedish National Patient Register.
They identified patients who had developed IBD, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, in adulthood between the years 1964 and 2014.
They found that patients who had developed IBD in adulthood or after the age of 60 had a 50% higher death risk than people without IBD.
This means the patients had a shortened life expectancy of 2.3 years. On the other hand, the numbers of IBD-related death declined over time.
The team also found that one group of patients had particularly high mortality: people who had both IBD and primary sclerosing cholangitis (a chronic liver disease).
These people had a three times higher death risk.
The team suggests that It is important that these patients are monitored especially carefully.
They suggest that although the most common causes of death were heart disease and cancer, death due to gastrointestinal disease accounted for the highest relative risk.
Treatments for IBD have improved greatly over the past 20 years due to the introduction of immunomodulating and biological drugs.
Future work needs to find treatments that have a great protective effect.
The lead author of the study is Ola Olén, consultant and researcher at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Solna).
The study is published in the journal Gut.
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