Approved Research

Identifying the risk factors of digestive diseases and the potential relationships with other diseases

Lay summary

The digestive system is one of the eight major systems of the human body. It is of great significance in maintaining the function of the human body. Digestive diseases are common but complicated in human beings, which seriously influence public health. It mainly includes organic diseases and functional diseases, such as peptic ulcer, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and so on. Digestive diseases not only seriously threaten the health of patients, but also leads to a heavy burden on families and society. There has been a widespread increase in the incidence of digestive diseases over the past decades, and the cost of medical care continues to increase as well.

However, the epidemiological characteristics, risk factors, as well as potential relationships between digestive diseases and other diseases (such as cardiovascular diseases, nervous system diseases, respiratory diseases) have not been clarified completely up to now. UK Biobank, a large-scale prospective study based on half a million participants, can provide the data for our further research. We aim to conduct a large-scale cohort study based on the UK Biobank to identify the epidemiological characteristics and risk factors of digestive diseases, and determine the relationships between digestive diseases and other diseases. Our research could provide evidence for the prevention and treatment of digestive diseases. We plan to complete all of our work on this study within 36 months.