Hart AR, Luben R, Olsen A et al.
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Digestion 2008;77:57–64.
Editor’s note: Patients frequently ask whether diet has an influence on the course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but data on this subject are sparse. In this article, the authors describe a prospective cohort study conducted in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Sweden. Out of 260 686 subjects aged between 20 and 80 years, 139 incident cases of ulcerative colitis (UC) were identified from IBD registries and follow-up questionnaires. The median time between recruitment and diagnosis was 3.8 years. Each case was matched with four randomly selected controls from the same center according to age, sex, and time of induction to the study. Dietary intake was assessed using country-specific food frequency questionnaires and dietary variables were divided into quartiles for analysis. Other demographic and lifestyle data were also collected, including smoking status.