PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Seagroatt, V
AU  - Goldacre, M J
TI  - Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and measles vaccine in an English population, 1979–1998
AID  - 10.1136/jech.57.11.883
DP  - 2003 Nov 01
TA  - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
PG  - 883--887
VI  - 57
IP  - 11
4099  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/57/11/883.short
4100  - http://jech.bmj.com/content/57/11/883.full
SO  - J Epidemiol Community Health2003 Nov 01; 57
AB  - Study objectives: To study the hospitalised incidence of Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) from 1979 to 1998; and to determine whether the introduction of the measles vaccination programme was associated with an increase in the young. Design: Analysis of linked data on hospital admissions; a cohort analysis of the effect of the measles vaccination programme on the incidence of hospitalised CD and UC; and a comparison of these results with those from previous studies on the association between measles vaccine and CD or UC. Settings: Southern England. Subjects: People admitted to hospital with a main diagnosis of CD (1959 people) or UC (2018 people). Main results: Overall, the incidence of hospitalised CD showed no significant change over the 20 year period: the average change per year was 0.08% (95% confidence interval: −0.7% to 0.9%). The relative risk associated with the measles vaccination programme was not significant (0.91: 0.5 to 1.4). The estimate differed significantly from the relative risk of 3.0 obtained in the original study reporting an association, but agreed with the combined estimate from three subsequent studies (0.95: 0.6 to 1.5). The results for UC were similar. Conclusions: The incidence of hospitalised CD and UC remained stable over the 20 years, 1979 to 1998. Whatever caused the marked increases in CD and UC in the mid-20th century must itself have stabilised in this region. These results, together with those from other studies, provide strong evidence against measles vaccine causing CD or UC.