UEG Week in Barcelona Tied More Antibiotic Courses to Higher Odds of IBS at 24

Picture a bathroom cabinet in a family home: the strep throat in year five, the ear infection, the acne course at fifteen, the chest infection at university. Most people could not tell you how many rounds of antibiotics they took between childhood and their twenties. A Swedish birth cohort can, and on Monday its count was presented in Barcelona. We read the study releases UEG issued over the first three days of UEG Week 2026 and pulled out the findings that change something for an ordinary gut.

Three stood out. A study of 2,853 young Swedes found that the more antibiotic prescriptions people had between about age 10 and 23, the higher their odds of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) at 24. A second found antibody patterns in the blood that mark people who will be diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis up to ten years later. A third projected how fast the long-term disability from alcohol-related liver disease will grow in the US. Here is each one, with its numbers and its limits.

The meeting: UEG Week is where Europe’s gut doctors bring their newest data

UEG Week is the annual congress of United European Gastroenterology, the umbrella group for digestive-health specialists across Europe. The 2026 edition runs October 17 to 20 at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona and online, according to UEG. Most of what is presented there is a conference abstract: real data, reviewed by the meeting, but not yet a full peer-reviewed paper. That is the right weight to give the findings below, and we flag the one exception.

Antibiotics and IBS: More antibiotic courses from age 10 came with higher odds of IBS at 24

The study followed 2,853 people in BAMSE, a Swedish birth cohort, and matched them to every antibiotic prescription in the national Swedish Prescribed Drug Register from 2005, when they were 9 to 11, until a year before they were checked for IBS at 24, UEG said in its October 19 release. At 24, 10.0% had IBS, which by our arithmetic is about 285 people. Antibiotics were more common in that group: 87.8% of those with IBS had taken at least one course, against 80.2% of those without, a gap of 7.6 percentage points (our arithmetic).

After adjusting for sex and family socioeconomic status, anyone who had taken antibiotics had 1.5 times the odds of IBS (95% CI 1.0 to 2.2). The pattern climbed with the count. Against no prescriptions, one or two came with 1.3 times the odds (0.9 to 2.0, a range that includes no difference), three to five with 1.6 times (1.0 to 2.4) and six or more with 1.7 times (1.1 to 2.6). Two drug families stood out in the UEG Week analysis: any tetracycline, a family often used for acne, came with 1.4 times the odds (1.1 to 1.8), and three or more cephalosporin prescriptions with 6.0 times (1.9 to 18.8). That last range is very wide, which usually means a small group, so it is the least settled number on this page.

Why might antibiotics matter for IBS at all? The study did not test a mechanism, and Dr Sjölund was careful about it: “Previous studies have shown that antibiotics can alter the gut microbiome. As alterations to the gut microbiome are thought to play a role in IBS, this could be one pathway underlying the association observed.” Antibiotics do not tell helpful gut bacteria from harmful ones, and a 2022 review in the World Journal of Gastroenterology (PMID 35431513) sets out how a disturbed microbiome is thought to feed into gut sensitivity, low-grade inflammation and changes in bowel habit. This is an association in one cohort, not proof that antibiotics cause IBS. Children who need many courses may also differ in other ways, such as more infections, which the study could not fully separate.

The everyday version: if you were the teenager with the long acne course or the run of ear infections and you now have IBS, this is not a verdict on you or your doctor. It is a reason for prescribers to keep doing what they are already asked to do, use antibiotics when they are needed and skip them when they are not, and a reason not to stop a course early without advice.

IBD, ten years out: Antibody patterns flagged Crohn’s disease and colitis years before diagnosis

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the umbrella for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is often diagnosed after months or years of symptoms. A team led by Dr Arno Bourgonje of University Medical Center Groningen, working at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, tested 2,000 stored blood samples from 500 people: 200 who later developed Crohn’s disease, 200 who later developed ulcerative colitis and 100 matched healthy controls, according to UEG’s October 18 release. Samples dated from diagnosis and from about two, four and ten years before it, and each was checked against roughly 357,000 antigens, the molecular targets antibodies recognise.

People who went on to develop either disease had less diverse antibodies, and distinct patterns were visible up to ten years ahead. Computer models built on those patterns told future Crohn’s cases from controls with an AUC of 0.90 and future ulcerative colitis with 0.84, where 1.0 would be a perfect test and 0.5 a coin toss. The same profiles separated more complicated Crohn’s disease from milder disease with an AUC of 0.85. The design was published in the journal Gut in July (PMID 42481382; Mount Sinai release, July 22), which makes this the most established finding on the page. The authors still call it a proof of principle: it needs testing in larger, more varied groups before anyone is screened with it.

The liver: Long-term disability from alcohol-related cirrhosis is projected to climb in the US

A UEG Week study of years lived with disability from alcohol-related cirrhosis complicated by heart failure, between 1990 and 2023 and projected to 2050, released by UEG on October 16, found the US rate rose 38.5% from 1990 to 2023 and is projected to rise a further 65.4% by 2050. Central Europe (49.6%) and Eastern Europe (66.6%) are on similar paths, while Western Europe is projected to fall 19.0%. Adults over 70 carried 10 to 16 times the rate of adults aged 15 to 49. Author Dr Ashesh Das said that without effective prevention and appropriate health care planning, Author Dr Ashesh Das said that without effective prevention and health care planning, “the burden could continue to grow substantially.”ldquo;the burden could continue to grow substantially in several regions over the coming decades.Author Dr Ashesh Das said that without effective prevention and health care planning, “the burden could continue to grow substantially.”rdquo; The liver is part of the digestive system, and this is the one finding from the week that turns on a daily habit most readers can change.

In the clinic: Drug makers brought longer follow-up for Crohn’s disease

Much of UEG Week is drug data, and most of it is presented by the companies that make the drugs. One example: Johnson & Johnson said its Phase 3 FUZION trial of guselkumab (Tremfya) in Crohn’s disease with perianal fistula, a painful tunnel that can form near the anus, showed combined fistula remission rising from 28% at week 24 to 35% at week 48 on the 100 mg dose every eight weeks, with more than 90% of patients staying on treatment through week 48, according to the company’s October 19 release. That is company data presented as a late-breaker, not an independent review. UEG also used the meeting to launch a Patient Representatives Advisory Board, it said on October 18, to give people living with digestive disease a formal voice in its policy work.

How we checked this: Sources and method

We read UEG’s own releases for each study on the day they were issued: the antibiotics and IBS study (PR Newswire, October 19, 2026), the IBD antibody study (EurekAlert, October 18, 2026, and the same text on Medical Xpress), and the cirrhosis projection (Medical Xpress, October 16, 2026, provided by UEG). We matched the IBD cohort to its July 2026 paper in Gut by PubMed ID and title (PMID 42481382) and to Mount Sinai’s July 22 release. The guselkumab figures come from Johnson & Johnson’s October 19 release and are company data. Meeting dates come from UEG’s congress page. The background review is PMID 35431513, title matched. Figures marked as our arithmetic are ours. Conference abstracts are not yet full peer-reviewed papers, and observational studies show associations, not causes. This article is educational, describes what the cited sources say, and is not medical advice.