Antibiotics Blamed For Inflammatory Bowel Disease

A recent research study found that children who were exposed to antibiotics were at greater risk for inflammatory bowel disease(IBD).

For the study researchers analyzed data of 1,072,426 children 17 years and younger from 464 practices in the UK.

The participants were either never exposed to antibiotics or  ever exposed to them; more than 1/2 of the participants were exposed to at least one antibiotic.

The study found that exposure to antianaerobic antibiotics increased overall risk for IBD by 84%.

When compared to children of the same age who had never been exposed to antibiotics, children 1 year and younger had a 5.51 times increased risk for disease.  The risk for the disease in exposed children; however, decreased with age, so by 15 years the risk is 1.57 times.

 Researchers are saying that limiting antibiotic use may help reduce the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease in children.

Read more on the study.