Healthier habits in early childhood linked to lower Crohn’s disease risk

A Scandinavian study of more than 117,000 children suggests that healthier lifestyle patterns in the first years of life may reduce the later risk of inflammatory bowel disease, particularly Crohn’s disease.

A healthy pattern of behaviour in the first years of life may lower the chance of developing inflammatory bowel disease later on, with the strongest signal seen for Crohn’s disease, according to research published in the Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis and reported by Healio.

The study followed 117,487 children from two Scandinavian birth cohorts and assessed lifestyle factors at ages one and three. Researchers looked at prenatal and postnatal smoke exposure, delivery method, breastfeeding, antibiotic use, diet, body mass index and physical activity, then combined them into scores designed to capture how closely a child’s early life matched healthier patterns.

During follow-up, which extended to a mean age of 20, 293 participants were diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, 283 with ulcerative colitis and 156 with unclassified inflammatory bowel disease. Children with more favourable lifestyle scores had a lower risk of inflammatory bowel disease overall, and the association was clearest for Crohn’s disease. The findings did not show a clear link with ulcerative colitis.

Annie Guo, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, told Healio that many patients wonder whether anything could have been done to prevent inflammatory bowel disease. She said the results add to growing evidence that modifiable habits may matter early in life, although she stressed that the study was observational and cannot prove cause and effect.

The researchers also noted that the associations were broadly consistent across sex, parental history of inflammatory bowel disease and social background. Even so, they said more work is needed to confirm the findings and to explore biological markers such as the gut microbiome, which may help explain why early childhood exposures appear to matter. As the authors put it, interventions focused on lifestyle choices in childhood could be especially valuable because behaviours formed early often persist.