Social isolation, loneliness, and incident irritable bowel syndrome: a prospective cohort study

Background The disease burden of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is well recognized as the dysfunction of gut-brain axis. We aimed to investigate the association between social isolation, loneliness, and the risk of developing IBS. Methods A total of 441114 participants not diagnosed with IBS at baseline enrolled in the UK Biobank from 2006 to 2010 were included in this cohort study. The exposures of interest were social isolation and loneliness. The primary endpoint was incident IBS. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to calculate the hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of the separate and joint effects of social isolation and loneliness on incident IBS. Results This study documented 9593 IBS cases during a mean follow-up of 14.6 years. Social isolation (HR 1.15, 95% CI 1.08–1.23) and loneliness (HR 1.45, 95% CI 1.33–1.57) were significantly associated with an increased risk of developing IBS. With the accelerating levels of social isolation and loneliness, participants showed a progressively higher tendency to develop IBS ( P _trend < 0.0001). No substantial changes were found in the further subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Conclusions Social isolation and loneliness were associated with an increased risk of developing IBS. These findings suggested that interventions to enhance objective and subjective social connection should be considered as important prevention strategies for IBS management.