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Children who grow up in a spic-and-span home may have a higher risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease, a study suggests.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) refers to a group of conditions marked by chronic inflammation in the intestines, leading to symptoms like abdominal pain and diarrhoea. It's thought that the conditions arise from an immune system overreaction that injures the body's own intestinal tissue.
In the new study, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, researchers looked at whether the so-called "hygiene hypothesis" might be involved in young people's risk of developing IBD.
The hygiene hypothesis was first advanced in the late 1980s as one explanation for the rise in allergic diseases in developed nations. The theory is that when children are exposed to few viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms early in life, their immune system development is affected in a way that raises the risk of abnormal immune reactions.
For example, studies have found that children who spend time in daycare, where they are likely to be exposed to viruses and other microorganisms, are less likely to develop allergies than their peers who spend little time around other children early in life.
For the current study, doctors looked at the relationship between IBD risk and certain markers of how "hygienic" a child's upbringing was - including how many siblings a child had, his or her spot in the family birth order, and whether the family lived in an urban or rural area. A rural environment is considered generally less hygienic than an urban one.
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