The Time-Dependent Association Between Irritable Bowel Syndrome and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study Within the UK Biobank

Authors

Fangyu Li
Yukiko Yano
Lola Étiévant
Carrie R Daniel
Shreela V Sharma
Eric L Brown
Ruosha Li
Erikka Loftfield
Qing Lan
Rashmi Sinha
Baharak Moshiree
Maki Inoue-Choi
Emily Vogtmann

Language

English

Publication Date

7-1-2024

Journal

The American Journal of Gastroenterology

DOI

10.14309/ajg.0000000000002675

PMID

38275237

PMCID

PMC11222041

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

7-1-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Abstract

Introduction: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common functional gastrointestinal disorders, but few studies have evaluated mortality risks among individuals with IBS. We explored the association between IBS and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in the UK Biobank.

Methods: We included 502,369 participants from the UK Biobank with mortality data through 2022. IBS was defined using baseline self-report and linkage to primary care or hospital admission data. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause and cause-specific mortality using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models within partitioned follow-up time categories (0-5, >5-10, and >10 years).

Results: A total of 25,697 participants (5.1%) had a history of IBS at baseline. After a median follow-up of 13.7 years, a total of 44,499 deaths occurred. Having an IBS diagnosis was strongly associated with lower risks of all-cause (HR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.62-0.78) and all-cancer (HR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.60-0.79) mortality in the first 5 years of follow-up. These associations were attenuated over follow-up, but even after 10 years of follow-up, associations remained inverse (all-cause: HR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.84-0.96; all-cancer: HR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.78-0.97) after full adjustment. Individuals with IBS had decreased risk of mortality from breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers in some of the follow-up time categories.

Discussion: We found that earlier during follow-up, having diagnosed IBS was associated with lower mortality risk, and the association attenuated over time. Additional studies to understand whether specific factors, such as lifestyle and healthcare access, explain the inverse association between IBS and mortality are needed.

Keywords

Humans, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Female, Male, Middle Aged, United Kingdom, Prospective Studies, Cause of Death, Aged, Adult, Proportional Hazards Models, Time Factors, Biological Specimen Banks, Risk Factors, Neoplasms, UK Biobank

Published Open-Access

yes

Recommended Citation

Li, Fangyu; Yano, Yukiko; Étiévant, Lola; et al., "The Time-Dependent Association Between Irritable Bowel Syndrome and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study Within the UK Biobank" (2024). Faculty, Staff and Student Publications. 2553.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/uthmed_docs/2553