Researchers from Rutgers and other institutions have uncovered significant variations in how inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects people of different races, sexes and places of birth.

The study, published in Gastro Hep Advances, may assist caregivers and help shed light on how diet, lifestyle and genetics can affect the development and disease course of IBD, a term for two conditions—Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis—that cause chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract.

“IBD has historically been a disease of Caucasian populations in Europe and North America, but now we’re seeing it among all races and in people all over the globe, so it’s now important to study how it manifests in different groups,” said Lea Ann Chen, an assistant professor of medicine and pharmacology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and senior author of the study.