Early life infections, antibiotics and later risk of juvenile idiopathic arthritis: evidence from two Scandinavian birth cohorts with exploratory genetic analyses
Authors' conclusion
A high early life infection frequency was modestly associated with later JIA. This association did not appear to be explained by shared genetic susceptibility. Attenuation after antibiotic adjustment may reflect antibiotics, treatment-requiring infections, or both.
Study context
- Population
- Children in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC); Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) identified through national patient registries and chart reviewschildren included, 428 developed JIA, MoBa genetic subsample n=40,002 · MoBa 72,982 · DNBC 53,590
- Participants
- 126,572 children
- Comparison
- Highest vs lowest infection frequency quartile during 0-18 months
- Outcome
- JIA risk (pooled analyses)
Methodological detailsprospectively parent-reported infection frequencies, logistic regression, pooled using random-effects meta-analyses
- Prospectively parent-reported infection frequencies
- Logistic regression
- Pooled using random-effects meta-analyses
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
HIGHEST INFECTION FREQUENCY QUARTILE vs LOWEST INFECTION FREQUENCY QUARTILEAdjusted odds ratio (95% CI)
JIA risk (pooled analyses)
1.38(1.03–1.84)
After adjustment for antibiotics
1.24(0.92–1.66)
Further pooled results
Association of JIA-PRS with a high infection frequency (MoBa subsample)
- aOR
- 1.00 (95% CI 0.97 to 1.02)
Polygenic Risk Score (PRS)-infection interaction
- Interaction with the third infection quartile
- P = 0.03
- Overall PRS-infection interaction, not significant
- Wald p=0.58
Original publication
Early life infections, antibiotics and later risk of juvenile idiopathic arthritis: evidence from two Scandinavian birth cohorts with exploratory genetic analyses. RMD Open. Published 9 November 2026. doi:10.
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