Inflammatory Bowel Disease environmental factors and outcomes.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Inflammatory bowel disease environmental factors, outcomes and health needs in South Asian and Caucasian patients.
IRAS ID
173030
Contact name
Rhys Butcher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a common idiopathic chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract. The underlying reasons why Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease develop are still being researched but it is thought that genetic susceptibility, exposure to environmental factors and changes in stool bacteria are all involved and that ultimately the immune system does not function correctly. Geographical variability in IBD incidence and prevalence and the increasing incidence of IBD in developing countries and migrant populations suggest that environmental factors play an important role in genetically susceptible individuals.
IBD-related differences in genetic susceptibility, geographical trends and response to environmental factors suggest that IBD studies in different ethnic/racial groups are important as patterns and outcomes observed in Caucasian patients may not be reproducible in non-Caucasian groups. Immigrant IBD populations represent a particularly understudied cohort. The study of IBD environmental factors in immigrant populations represents a novel opportunity to characterise IBD in these patients and may potentially further our understanding of the interaction between genetic susceptibility and host and environmental risk factors.
Our study will therefore aim to characterise exposure to environmental risk factors in South Asian and Caucasian IBD patients. We will also assess IBD-related knowledge, health-related quality of life and complementary and alternative medicine use in South Asian and Caucasian IBD patients. The study of these secondary outcomes could potentially identify unmet patient needs in these patients allowing more patient centred care in the future.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/YH/0210
Date of REC Opinion
24 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion