Inflammatory bowel disease and economic activity: panel data evidence for Europe

Abstract

ABSTRACTThere is worldwide evidence that Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) incidents increase over time in different regions around the world, signifying its emergence as a global disease. The available evidence implies that factors such as economic development positively affect IBD incidents, at a time when relevant surveys on other diseases support the existence of the same positive relationship between disease incidents and economic development. In this context, it is surprising that the actual empirical relationship between IBD incidents and economic development remains largely unexplored or even completely ignored by the literature. In the present work, we assess empirically the relationship between IBD incidents and economic development by analysing incidents registered in the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization’s Epidemiological Committee (EpiCom) study for two consecutive years (2010–2011) based on data availability. We provide strong statistical evidence in favour of a positive relationship between IBD incidents and economic development.