A case-control study of childhood environmental risk factors for the development of inflammatory bowel disease.

Objective: To clarify the relationship between childhood environment and the risk of subsequent development of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.

Design And Outcome Measures: A case-control study, assessing the risk of inflammatory bowel disease in relation to a series of historical and serological markers of childhood circumstance, analysed using the maximum likelihood form of conditional logistic regression.

Setting: District general hospital (secondary care institution).