Body Mass Index and the Risk for Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis: Data From a European Prospective Cohort Study (The IBD in EPIC Study)

In a cohort of 300,724 participants, 177 developed ulcerative colitis (UC) and 75 developed Crohn's disease (CD).

• No associations were found between higher body mass index (BMI) categories and the development of UC (Ptrend=0.36) or CD (Ptrend=0.83).
• The lack of associations held true when analyzing BMI as a continuous or binary variable (BMI 18.5<25.0 vs. ≥25 kg/m²).
• Physical activity and total energy intake did not show associations with the incidence of UC (physical activity, Ptrend=0.79; total energy intake, Ptrend=0.18) or CD (physical activity, Ptrend=0.42; total energy, Ptrend=0.11).
• The findings suggest that obesity measured by BMI may not be related to the development of incident inflammatory bowel disease.

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