Dietary Patterns, Ultra-processed Food, and the Risk of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in the NutriNet-Santé Cohort.

BACKGROUND

The incidence of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) tended to increase for several decades. Diet is suspected to be a major determinant of the occurrence of these diseases. This prospective study aimed to assess the associations among occurrence of IBD, dietary patterns, and ultra-processed food in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort.

METHODS

Participants of the NutriNet-Santé cohort who completed at least three 24-hour dietary records were included. Incident IBD cases were identified from 3 questionnaires and confirmed by phone or email interview. Major dietary patterns (DPs) were computed using a principal component analysis (PCA) based on 29 food groups' consumption, whereas proportions of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) were obtained using the NOVA classification. Multivariable Poisson models were performed to evaluate associations among DP quintiles, UPF proportion (UPFp) in the diet, and incident IBD.

RESULTS

A total of 105,832 participants were included, contributing 238,924 person-years in a mean follow-up of 2.3 ± 2.2 years. Among them, 75 participants reported an incident IBD. Three major DPs were retained: "healthy," "traditional," and "western." No significant association was found for DPs and UPFp after adjustments for covariates.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, neither DPs nor UPF proportion in the diet were significantly associated with the risk of incident IBD after adjustments for covariates. Further studies are needed to investigate the long-term association between diet and IBD.