New York: The more antibiotics are prescribed to patients 60 and older, the more likely they were to develop inflammatory bowel disease, suggests a team of researchers. According to the review of 2.3 million patient records in a study selected for presentation at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2022, antibiotic use could explain some of the growth in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in older people. "In older adults, we think that environmental factors are more important than genetics," said researchers Adam S. Faye from NYU Grossman School of Medicine in the US.
"When you look at younger patients with new diagnoses of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, there's generally a strong family history. But that is not the case in older adults, so it's really something in the environment that is triggering it," Faye added. Using Denmark's national database, which includes nearly all medical records for residents, researchers reviewed prescribing records for people aged 60 and older who were newly diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease from 2000 to 2018.