Women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are more likely to develop high-grade cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN2+), a Dutch study suggests.

Researchers examined cervical cytology and histology data for nearly 2100 women with IBD and some 8400 women in a matched cohort from the general population in the Netherlands.

After a median follow-up of 13 years, women with IBD had a 66% higher likelihood of developing CIN2+ and 89% greater odds of having persistent or recurrent CIN during follow-up than those in the general population.

Examining risk factors within the IBD cohort, women who smoked had a three-fold higher risk of CIN2+ and those with Crohn’s disease had nearly double the risk of CIN2+ if they had an ileocolonic or upper-GI disease location.