ArticleClinical epidemiology2014
Latitude, sunshine, and human lactase phenotype distributions may contribute to geographic patterns of modern disease: the inflammatory bowel disease model.
Article in Clinical epidemiology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations of the MCM6-rs3754686 proxy for milk intake in Mediterranean and American populations with cardiovascular biomarkers, disease and mortality: Mendelian randomization.Scientific reports · 2016Pooled it
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of lactose digestion, its impact on intolerance and nutritional effects of dairy food restriction in inflammatory bowel diseases.Nutrition journal · 2016Pooled it
- Microbiome alternative treatments for hepatic encephalopathy: Reassessment of the potential use of lactose in lactase non-persistent cirrhosis patients.Canadian liver journal · 2026Article
- Dietary Relationships between Obesity and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: A Narrative Review of Diets Which May Promote Both Diseases.Current gastroenterology reports · 2025Review
- ASCA-related antibodies in the blood sera of healthy donors and patients with colorectal cancer: characterization with oligosaccharides related toFrontiers in molecular biosciences · 2023Article
- Estimating Lactase Nonpersistence Distributions in the Multi-Ethnic Canadian Demographic: A Population-Based Study.Journal of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology · 2020Article
- Changing Patterns of Relationships Between Geographic Markers and IBD: Possible Intrusion of Obesity.Crohn's & colitis 360 · 2020Article
- Relationship(s) between obesity and inflammatory bowel diseases: possible intertwined pathogenic mechanisms.Clinical journal of gastroenterology · 2020Review
- Lactase persistence may explain the paradoxical findings of high vitamin D concentrations in Europeans living in areas of low UV-B irradiation.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2019Article
- Evolving Role of Vitamin D in Immune-Mediated Disease and Its Implications in Autoimmune Hepatitis.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2019Review
- Vitamin D: Nutrient, Hormone, and Immunomodulator.Nutrients · 2018Review
- Milk Intake at Midlife and Cognitive Decline over 20 Years. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study.Nutrients · 2017Article
- Review
- Vitamin D in Autoimmunity: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potential.Frontiers in immunology · 2016Review
- Review
- The Diverse Forms of Lactose Intolerance and the Putative Linkage to Several Cancers.Nutrients · 2015Review
- Adult lactose digestion status and effects on disease.Canadian journal of gastroenterology & hepatology · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Countries with high lactase nonpersistence (LNP) or low lactase persistence (LP) populations have lower rates of some "western" diseases, mimicking the effects of sunshine and latitude. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), ie, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, is putatively also influenced by sunshine. Recent availability of worldwide IBD rates and lactase distributions allows more extensive comparisons. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent to which modern day lactase distributions interact with latitude, sunshine exposure, and IBD rates. National IBD rates, national distributions of LP/LNP, and population-weighted average national annual ultraviolet B exposure were obtained, estimated, or calculated from the literature. Negative binomial analysis was used to assess the relationship between the three parameters and IBD rates. Analyses for 55 countries were grouped in three geographic domains, ie, global, Europe, and non-Europe. In Europe, both latitude and ultraviolet B exposure correlate well with LP/LNP and IBD. In non-Europe, latitude and ultraviolet B exposure correlate weakly with LP/LNP, but the latter retains a more robust correlation with IBD. In univariate analysis, latitude, ultraviolet B exposure, and LP/LNP all had significant relationships with IBD. Multivariate analysis showed that lactase distributions provided the best model of fit for IBD. The model of IBD reveals the evolutionary effects of the human lactase divide, and suggests that latitude, ultraviolet B exposure, and LP/LNP mimic each other because LP/LNP follows latitudinal directions toward the equator. However, on a large scale, lactase patterns also follow lateral polarity. The effects of LP/LNP in disease are likely to involve complex interactions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.