Heureux d’avoir obtenu ce financement des Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada (IRSC) IRSC qui nous permettra en collaboration avec ma consœur Dr Marie-Claude Rousseau de INRS – Armand Frappier de mener notre projet concernant les facteurs de risques associés aux Maladies Inflammatoires Intestinales.
http://webapps.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/decisions/p/project_details.html?applId=380766&lang=fr
Studying inflammatory bowel disease etiology: a life course approach
Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic disease of the gut. It affects digestion and absorption of food, and elimination of waste. Its causes are unknown. After many studies, researchers have only been able to identify a few risk factors with certainty. They include family history of the disease and cigarette smoking.
The causes of this disease are still unknown, but some researchers think that certain times in life could be more critical for the development of the disease. Our goal is to clarify the causes of disease, and identify which ones could be targeted by prevention program.
We will study medical, lifestyle, and psychosocial factors from the time of birth until adult years. We will determine if they are linked to the development of the disease. These factors are for example prematurity, breastfeeding, antibiotic use, diet, smoking, stress. We will also study carefully when these factors occur during a person’s life.
For this research, we will use a cohort of about 400,000 persons born between 1970 and 1974, in the province of Quebec, Canada. We created this cohort for a previous study by linking together some provincial administrative databases. Data on medical services and hospitalizations for inflammatory bowel disease were obtained until 2014 and will be used to determine who is affected by the disease.
Then, we will ask about 2600 persons of the cohort to complete a web survey to obtain additional information. Among the participants, we will compare persons who have the disease to those who do not, and evaluate what are the key moments throughout their lives when these factors could increase the risk of the disease.
This research will help understanding which factors increase the risk of inflammatory bowel disease by detecting if there are certain times in a person’s life that are especially important. We will produce crucial information to establish prevention programs.