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 Out of 239 patients with two common types of IBD - Crohn’s disease
and ulcerative colitis - only half were aware of the smoking risks
associated with these conditions.
“The take-home message for patients with IBD is that smoking can
affect their disease,” lead study author Dr. Stephanie
Ducharme-Benard of the University of Montreal Hospital Center said
by email.
Inflammatory bowel diseases involve chronic or recurring
inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Ulcerative colitis and
Crohn’s disease are the most common forms. People with Crohn’s have
inflammation throughout the entire digestive tract, while in
ulcerative colitis, only the large intestine is inflamed.
Previous research has linked smoking to an increased risk of Crohn’s
disease and its complications but has also suggested that smokers
are at lower risk for ulcerative colitis, Ducharme-Benard and
colleagues note in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology.
For the current study, researchers questioned 182 people with
Crohn’s and 77 people with ulcerative colitis about their diagnosis,
symptoms, smoking history, and understanding of how tobacco use
might relate to development of their disease or to complications or
recurrences.
Most patients in the study were white and female, and they were
typically in their 40s.
Compared to patients with ulcerative colitis, patients with Crohn’s
used more corticosteroids and other medications to manage symptoms,
and they had more hospital admissions, surgeries, and time missed
from work as a result of their disease. But both groups were about
equally likely to considered their disease to be well controlled.
Overall, 20 percent of study participants were current smokers and
40 percent were former smokers. A greater proportion of people with
Crohn’s were current smokers, while there were more former smokers
among the patients with ulcerative colitis.
Less than half of Crohn’s patients and just 10 percent of people
with ulcerative colitis could correctly explain to researchers how
smoking influenced their risk of getting their disease, and the
proportions were similar for their understanding of complications
tied to smoking.
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Most smokers who were informed about the effects of the habit on
their disease told researchers they intended to quit, compared with
less than half of the participants who didn’t understand the risks.
“People think of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis as ‘bowel
only’ problems and cigarette smoking as causing ‘lung problems’ and
look at them separately,” Dr. Miguel Regueiro, who leads the IBD
clinical program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
said by email.
One limitation of the study is its reliance on patients to
accurately recall and report their smoking habits, the researchers
acknowledge.
But the message for patients should still be clear, Dr. Gilaad
Kaplan, a gastroenterology researcher at the University of Calgary
in Alberta, said by email.
“The most important step that an individual can take to prevent IBD
is not to smoke in the first place,” added Kaplan, who wasn’t
involved in the study.
“Among smokers who are diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, quitting
smoking is an action that they can take for themselves to improve
their health,” Kaplan said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1K1W5Ls Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology,
online July 18, 2015.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
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