Rosacea is associated with certain gastrointestinal diseases, but the possible pathogenic link is unknown, according to a recent study. Gastrointestinal complaints in patients with rosacea should warrant clinical suspicion of disease. Researchers performed a nationwide cohort study that included a total of 49,475 patients with rosacea and 4,312,213 general population controls. They found:

• The prevalence of coeliac disease (CeD), Crohn disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), Helicobacter pylori infection (HPI), small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), respectively, was higher among patients with rosacea when compared with the control subjects.
• Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) revealed significant associations between rosacea and CeD (HR 1.46, 1.11–1.93), CD (HR 1.45, 1.19–1.77), UC (HR 1.19, 1.02–1.39), and IBS (HR 1.34, 1.19–1.50), respectively, but not HPI (HR 1.04, 0.96–1.13) or SIBO (HR 0.71, 0.18–1.86).