Alimentary pharmacology & therapeuticsDec 9, 2021

Alcohol drinking and the risk of inflammatory bowel disease in three US groups followed over time

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Apr 5, 2026

Abstract

Across 5,170,474 person-years of follow-up, 370 cases of Crohn's Disease and 486 cases of Ulcerative Colitis were documented.

No overall association was found between alcohol consumption and the risk of Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis.
For those consuming 15.0+ grams of alcohol per day, the adjusted hazard ratios were 0.84 for Crohn's Disease and 1.08 for Ulcerative Colitis compared to non-users.
Moderate consumption of beer (more than 1-4 servings per week) may be associated with a reduced risk of Crohn's Disease.
Consumption of more than 4 servings per week of liquor could be linked to an increased risk of Ulcerative Colitis.
Further investigation is needed to explore the associations between specific types of alcohol and the risk of these diseases.

Simplified

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There are limited data on alcohol dose and types and risk of Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). We therefore sought to comprehensively examine the association between alcohol consumption and risk of CD and UC.

METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 237,835 participants from the Nurses' Health Study, Nurses' Health Study II, and Health Professional Follow-Up Study. Alcohol consumption was obtained through questionnaires submitted every four years; additional covariates were obtained at two or four-year intervals. Cases were confirmed independently by two physicians through medical record review. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate age and multivariable-adjusted hazards ratios and 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS: Across 5,170,474 person-years of follow-up, 370 cases of CD and 486 cases of UC were documented. Increased consumption of alcohol intake was not associated with CD (Ptrend = 0.455) or UC (Ptrend = 0.745). Compared to non-users, the MV-adjusted HRs for 15.0 + g/day of alcohol intake group were 0.84 (95% CI 0.56, 1.24) for CD and 1.08 (95% CI 0.77, 1.51) for UC. In analyses of alcohol subtypes, we observed that only moderate consumption of beer (>1-4 servings/week) was marginally associated with reduced risk of CD, while consumption of >4 servings/week of liquor was associated with an increased risk of UC.

CONCLUSION: This prospective study did not identify a relationship between overall alcohol consumption and risk of CD or UC. Our suggestive associations between alcohol types and risk of CD and UC deserve additional investigation.

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Alcohol drinking and the risk of inflammatory bowel disease in three US groups followed over time

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