Project: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, debilitating immune-mediated disease with a typical onset in childhood and young adulthood. After a rising incidence over the past decades, it now affects 0.5% of Western populations, and is an emerging disease globally. There is ample evidence that the early life environment contributes to IBD, however the nature of such factors is poorly defined, which partly relates to a scarcity of sufficiently powered, prospective data from population-based cohorts.  In this doctoral project we will address these challenges by analyzing birth cohort data on some 82,000 children followed, from birth (1997-2009) throughout 2020, in the ABIS (Sweden) and MoBa (Norway) cohorts for development of IBD. We will identify IBD diagnoses using linked nationwide health-register data. Pooled cohort analyses will consider early-life dietary patterns, hygiene and living conditions, and maternal infectious frequency and antibiotic use in pregnancy as risk factors for childhood IBD. Causal inference will be improved by taking advantage of comprehensive data on potential confounders.

Read more, and apply, at https://web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/1035/job?site=7&lang=UK&validator=…