Association between spring season of birth and Crohn's disease.

[kiny]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23924874

2014 Feb

Association between spring season of birth and Crohn's disease.

Shaw , Nugent , Targownik , Singh , Blanchard , Bernstein

BACKGROUND & AIMS:

As for many complex diseases, the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is higher among individuals born during certain seasons. This difference could arise from seasonal variations in many factors, including exposure to sunlight, antibiotics, or infectious agents. We investigated the relationship between season of birth, early childhood exposure to antibiotics, and incidence of IBD.

METHODS:

We performed a nested case-control analysis using data from the University of Manitoba inflammatory bowel disease epidemiology database. We compared seasons of birth among 11,145 individuals with IBD (cases) and 108,633 controls using conditional logistic regression models. We collected data on use of antibiotics in the first year of life for cases and controls from the Manitoba Drug Program Information Network-a comprehensive database of all prescriptions given to residents of Manitoba since 1995.

RESULTS:

Approximately 27.0% of cases were born from April through June, compared with 25.6% of controls (odds ratio, 1.07; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.12; P = .002). Comparisons made by sex (male vs female) and type of IBD (ulcerative colitis vs Crohn's disease) showed statistical significance only for men with Crohn's disease (odds ratio, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.25; P = .009). At ages 6 months and older, cases and controls born from April through June received a significantly greater number of prescriptions for antibiotics than cases and controls born in other months.

CONCLUSIONS:

Men with Crohn's disease are more likely to have been born in the months of April through June.

 

[kiny]

There's been a handful of studies like these, but some contradict each other.

This study shows that being born in the spring increases your risk of crohn's disease, but there's been a study that showed being born in june decreased your risk of crohn's disease.

So if you find a correlation, you would base the differences on the hypothesis that the immune system matured a certain way, and when you're born in a certain month, you're exposed to different environmental factors as people born in say, winter months, seasonal, antibiotic, etc, and then that would later in life translate to a higher risk of crohn's disease. I really don't know what to think of that thought process, not sure it matters at all, but it's interesting to see if it matters, it's pretty straighforward to check really.

 

[Jmrogers4]

Interesting so the two males in my life with Crohn's were born in the summer July and August, my April son no problems.

 

[valleysangel92]

Wasn't the case with me, I was a December baby, and I'm the only one in my blood family with crohns .

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Wasn't the case with me either, I was born in November and I'm the only one currently alive in my (blood) family with IBD. I did have a great-grandfather with UC who died in the 1950s - I just looked up his birthdate, and he was born in March (of 1891!). From what my grandmother has told me, her father not only had UC but also TB and cancer, so he had some very serious health conditions and I'm sure it was more than just birth month that caused him to be so ill!