Changing Food Habits has Lead to Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Children

Bowel diseases are a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the principal types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Pediatric inflammatory bowel disease is more severe than the adult inflammatory bowel disease and needs prolonged treatment. It can also lead to growth failures in children. Changing food habits from organic food to processed food has lead to the rise in inflammatory bowel disease among Indian children, revealed a study. Two centers from northern India, four centers from southern India and one from central India participated in the study. The investigators found that out of 221 children, 42% suffered from ulcerative colitis, which involves the large intestine, and 55.2% suffered from Crohn’s disease, which involves the food pipe, small intestine as well as large intestine.

Dr.Nishant Wadhwa, co-author of the study and pediatric gastroenterologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said, "This study has for the first time outlined the baseline profile in pediatric population with IBD from India and has shown that two-third (60.5%) of the children in this series were suffering from growth failure."

The results of the study are published in the January 2015 edition of Indian Journal of Gastroenterology.

Source-Medindia