No associations between moderate alcohol intake and risk of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s Disease

The results of this prospective study do not support a role of alcohol consumption in the development of ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.

For the first time, scientists from the multi-national EPIC-Study assessed prospectively the role of pre-disease alcohol consumption on the risk of developing ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn’s disease (CD) (*). Out of 262 451 participants in six countries, 198 UC incident cases/792 controls and 84 CD cases/336 controls were included. Alcohol consumption was classified as either non-use, former drinkers, light drinkers (⩽0.5 and 1 drink/week), below the recommended limits (BRL) (⩽1 and 2 drinks/day), moderate drinkers (⩽2.5 and 5 drinks/day), or heavy drinkers (>2.5 and >5 drinks/day) for women and men, respectively and it was expressed as consumption at enrolment and during lifetime. To avoid confounding, the data were adjusted for smoking and education, taking light users as the reference.

The current analysis found no association between any level of alcohol consumption and the risk of UC or CD, neither at recruitment nor during lifetime from 20 years of age onwards or for any lifetime patterns of alcohol use.

(*) Ulcerative colitisUlcerative colitis or Crohn's disease (CD) is the most common type of inflammatory bowel disease. Ul... and Crohn’s Disease are the most common types of inflammatory bowel disease. Ulcerative colitisUlcerative colitis or Crohn's disease (CD) is the most common type of inflammatory bowel disease. Ul... affects only the colon and rectum. Crohn’s Disease can affect any part of the digestive tract.

Bergmann MM, Hernandez V, Bernigau W, et al. No association of alcohol use and the risk of ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease: data from a European Prospective cohort study (EPIC). Eur J Clin Nutr. 2017 Jan 25. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2016.271. [Epub ahead of print]

For more information about this article, read the scientific abstract here.