Researchers from New York University Langone Health said the risk appeared to be cumulative, reaching its highest point after one to two years of taking antibiotics.
Nearly 7 million people worldwide suffer from IBD, and the study authors expect that number to rise over the next decade.
The study linked a higher risk of infection in younger people (under 40 years) with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, with the use of antibiotics.
The study included data on more than 6 million people (slightly more than half of them female), 91 percent of whom received at least one antibiotic between 2000 and 2018.
During the study period, doctors diagnosed more than 36,000 new cases of ulcerative colitis and more than 16,800 new cases of Crohn’s disease.
Compared to not using antibiotics, the study found that the use of these drugs showed a clear association with the risk of developing enteritis, regardless of age, despite the fact that older patients are most at risk.
The lead author of the study, published in the medical journal “Gut”, Adam Faye, indicated that the highest risk of developing enteritis was after taking antibiotics for a period ranging from 12 to two years.
“Broad-spectrum antibiotics indiscriminately target all the microbes in the gut, not just those that cause disease,” Fey said, commenting on the study.
The researchers called for more experiments, because their study was based on observation only, without determining the exact final cause.
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