IBS diagnosis tied to lower all-cause, cancer mortality

A diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a common functional gastrointestinal disorder, appears to contribute to a reduced risk of death, but this association weakens over time, a study has shown.

At baseline, 25,697 participants (5.1 percent) had an IBS history. A total of 44,499 deaths occurred over a median follow-up of 13.7 years. In the first 5 years of follow-up, however, those with an IBS diagnosis exhibited reduced risks of all-cause (hazard ratio [HR], 0.70, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.62‒0.78) and all-cancer mortality (HR, 0.69, 95 percent CI, 0.60‒0.79).

Although these associations attenuated over time, they remained inverse after full adjustment (all-cause mortality: HR, 0.89, 95 percent CI, 0.84‒0.96; all-cancer mortality: HR, 0.87, 95 percent CI, 0.78‒0.97) during 10 years of follow-up. Specifically, individuals with IBS had a lower risk of death from breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers in some of the follow-up time categories.

“Additional studies to understand whether specific factors, such as lifestyle and healthcare access, explain the inverse association between IBS and mortality are needed,” the investigators said.

In total, 502,369 participants from the UK Biobank with mortality data through 2022 were included in this study. Baseline self-report and linkage to primary care or hospital admission data were used to define IBS.

Finally, the investigators used multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models within partitioned follow-up time categories (0‒5, >5‒10, and >10 years) to calculate HRs for all-cause and cause-specific mortality.