Researchers conducting a nationwide study in Denmark found that rosacea may be associated with increased risk of certain gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, but whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship is unknown.1
As in their previous comorbidity studies, Dr. Alexander Egeberg and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen tracked more than 4.3 million individuals in the Danish National Patient Registry for five years, including 49,475 who were diagnosed with rosacea. The investigators found that there was a higher prevalence in rosacea patients of a variety of GI disorders. Compared with individuals without rosacea, those with rosacea were 46 percent more likely to have celiac disease, 45 percent more likely to have Crohn’s disease, 34 percent more likely to have irritable bowel syndrome and 19 percent more likely to have ulcerative colitis.
The researchers noted that further study is warranted to determine potential common causal factors and examine the underlying mechanisms and clinical consequences of these associations.
A small study at Johns Hopkins University in 2015 also found that rosacea patients were more likely than people without the disorder to suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other GI disorders.2