Increased subsequent risk of inflammatory bowel disease association in patients with chronic pancreatitis: a nationwide population-based cohort study

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between chronic pancreatitis (CP) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in a large population-based cohort study. Methods: Data was obtained from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The cohort study comprised 17,796 patients newly diagnosed with CP between 2000 and 2010 and 71,164 matched controls. A Cox proportional hazards model was used for evaluating the risk of IBD in the CP and comparison cohorts. Results: When examined with a mean follow-up period of 4.87 and 6.04 years for the CP and comparison cohorts, respectively, the overall incidence of IBD was 10.3 times higher in the CP cohort than in the comparison cohort (5.75 vs. 0.56 per 10,000 person-years). Compared with the comparison cohort, the CP cohort exhibited a higher risk of IBD, irrespective of age, sex, and presence or absence of comorbidities. Moreover, the CP cohort was associated with a significantly higher risk of Crohn’s disease (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 12.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 5.15–32.5) and ulcerative colitis (aHR = 2.80, 95% CI = 1.00–7.86). Conclusions: This nationwide population-based cohort study revealed a significantly higher risk of IBD in patients with CP compared with control group. Clinicians should notice this association to avoid delayed diagnosis of IBD in patients with CP.