Taking antibiotics may boost kids' risk to develop juvenile arthritis, a new study found.
Children who were prescribed antibiotics had twice the risk of developing the inflammatory autoimmune disease of the joints and eyes compared with those the same age who didn't take antibiotics, the researchers found. They analyzed data from more than 400,000 British children, 152 of whom have juvenile arthritis.
"This public health finding is potentially important, considering that approximately one-quarter of antibiotics prescribed for children, and an estimated one-half of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections, may be unnecessary and potentially avoidable," researchers wrote in the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
The more courses of antibiotics a child took, the higher the associated risk, the researchers found. The researchers examined the potential link because past studies have shown that antibiotics disrupt microbes in the gut and can predispose kids to autoimmune diseases.
However, the researchers cautioned that a majority of kids end up taking antibiotics, while only about 1 in 1,000 get arthritis - so it can't be the only factor behind the condition. There are genetic and environmental causes.
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