HYDERABAD: A study by the city-based Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) Hospitals has found that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in India has increased to 5.4 per cent, in both the urban and rural populations.
The research which was published in the ’The Lancet Regional Health-Southeast Asia’ journal found that the prevalence pattern of IBD had changed over the years since the last findings in 2006 when the IBD was 0.1 per cent, and accounted for more than 5 patients presenting with lower gastrointestinal symptoms, a rate that was higher than that of infectious colitis.
For the study, 32,021 patients were investigated from March 2020 to May 2022 with predominant symptoms of chronic abdominal pain, change in bowel habits, rectal bleeding, chronic diarrhoea, unintended weight loss (9 per cent) and anaemia.
Out of the total patients, 67.3 per cent were male and 21 per cent were from the rural setting with a median age of 44.
Patients with lower GI symptoms attending urban out-patient clinics or specially conducted mobile rural health camps were evaluated using basic laboratory parameters, abdominal ultrasound and colonoscopy. The health camps were conducted in 32 villages of Ranga Reddy, Sangareddy and Vikarabad districts.
One of the authors of the research, Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman and Chief of Gastroenterology, AIG Hospitals, speaking to ‘Deccan Chronicle’ said, “In previous years, there used to be a lot of infectious bowel diseases which were probably related to the water source. With improvement in sanitation and water sources and with groundwater in no longer use, waterborne gastrointestinal infectious diseases are reducing and the conventional waterborne diseases are being replaced by Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).”
“Another observation,” Dr Nageshwar Reddy said, “is that processed food and fast food with preservatives and additives is causing a change in the bacterial flora in the gut which is causing the IBD.”
Dr Nageshwar Reddy further said that more research was being done to see if other factors were causing the IBD such as changes in the toilets from Indian to Western styles, eating habits from grains to refined food, use of toothpaste which contains titanium which changes the bacterial flora in the gut.
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Infogfx:
• Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman and Chief of Gastroenterology, AIG Hospitals, says with improved sanitation, waterborne gastrointestinal infectious diseases are reducing
• Conventional water borne diseases are being replaced by Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Dr Reddy, co-author of a study, says.
• Processed food and fast food with preservatives and additives is causing change in the bacterial flora in the gut which is causing the IBD, Dr Reddy said.
• Research was being done to see change from Indian to Western style toilets, shifting from grains to refined food, use of toothpaste which contains titanium could change bacterial flora in the gut.
