For IBD Patients, Too Much Processed Meat May Be Deadly

Frequent consumption of processed meat was associated with a higher risk of death among inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, especially those with Crohn's disease, researchers found.

Consuming processed meat more than 4 times a week was associated with a higher risk of death among IBD patients (hazard ratio 1.53, 95% CI 1.06-2.23, P=0.025), compared to consuming it less than once a week, while consuming only unprocessed red meat, chicken, or fish was not tied to any greater risk of death, reported Jie Chen, PhD, of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.

Eating more processed meat was also linked to a higher risk of death among patients with Crohn's disease (HR 2.01, 95% CI 1.12-3.62, P=0.020), but not among those with ulcerative colitis (HR 1.27, 95% CI 0.77-2.09, P=0.346), he said at a poster presentation at the virtual Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Disease meeting.

They explained that the role of meat consumption has been established in the development and incidence of IBD. However, the risk of "all-cause mortality" associated with meat consumption among IBD patients has been unknown, they added.

"No surprises here, processed foods [including] meats have been associated with risks of IBD, other immune-mediated diseases, cardiovascular disease and cancers," said Stephen B. Hanauer, MD, of Northwestern University in Chicago, who was not involved in this study. "Association with all cause mortality in IBD patients would be expected."

Chen and colleagues evaluated 5,763 patients with IBD from the large scale biomedical database, the U.K. Biobank during 2007 to 2010. The main outcome assessed all-cause mortality in association with meat consumption among IBD patients.

Researchers collected baseline dietary information by providing a food frequency questionnaire. Deaths were based on death registry records, and follow-up ended in March 2021. The average length of follow-up was 11.7 years. For their analysis, 0.1 to 0.9 times per week served as the reference for the consumption of processed meat.

Patients were a mean age of 57, just over half were women (53%) and 68% had ulcerative colitis, while 32% had Crohn's disease. Overall, 590 patients died during the study.

Sensitivity analysis by subgroup showed similar findings among IBD patients who had over 10 years of disease duration (HR 1.67, 95% CI 1.03-2.69) or engaged in high levels of physical activity (HR 2.21, 95% CI 1.13-4.33).

"We recommend a re-modified diet with restricting processed meat as well as supplying an additional healthy diet for IBD patients, using alone or in combination with pharmacotherapy," Chen and co-authors concluded.

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