Home

Welcome to the UK-wide Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Research Project

We would like to sincerely thank everyone who took the time to participate in our UK-wide survey on Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Your valuable contributions have helped us explore important questions about Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, including whether where you live might influence your condition. We are excited to share the key results from our studies below. Thanks to your participation, we have been able to uncover meaningful patterns that may guide future research and potentially help improve the lives of people living with IBD.

We would also like to express our heartfelt thanks to the following organisations for their incredible support in promoting our survey and helping us reach such a wide audience. Without their help, this research would not have been possible:

Your continued dedication to the IBD community is deeply appreciated. Below you can find the summary of the first IBD study and a more recently published abstract of a second IBD study.

Study 1 – Geographical Patterns of IBD in the UK
Where You Live Might Matter: A Nationwide Look at IBD in the UK

Between December 2021 and October 2022, over 5,400 people living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis took part in our UK-wide survey. Thanks to your responses, we were able to create one of the most detailed maps of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in the country.

What did we find?

  • IBD is widespread: Reported cases of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are geographically widespread across the UK.
  • Gender differences: Women aged 20–59 reported significantly higher rates of both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis than men.
  • A regional pattern: One particular finding showed that Crohn’s disease appears to be relatively more common in parts of North-West England compared to ulcerative colitis — a pattern that may be worth investigating further.

We’re very grateful for your participation, which helped us uncover these important patterns. Your contribution is shaping future research.

📰 This study is published in PLOS ONE.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0329317

Study 2 – Environmental Factors and Crohn’s Disease
Could Environmental Exposure Play a Role in Crohn’s Disease?

In this study, we explored whether living in river catchments with a higher proportion of pasture land is associated with Crohn’s disease across the UK. We focused on pasture environments because they can harbour Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), the bacterium responsible for Johne’s disease in animals, which has been reported in previous research to be associated with Crohn’s disease in humans.

What did we find?

  • A significant association: Catchments containing a greater proportion of pasture land were associated with higher reported rates of Crohn’s disease.
  • A disease-specific pattern: This association was not observed for ulcerative colitis.
  • New national-scale evidence: This is the first study to identify a relationship between Crohn’s disease and pasture proportion across the UK at a national scale.

While these findings do not demonstrate causation, they support the hypothesis that environmental exposure pathways linked to pasture land may contribute to Crohn’s disease risk and highlight the need for further research.

📰 This study is published in BMC Public Health.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-026-27065-1