Antibiotics may raise a child’s risk of developing juvenile arthritis, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

The more rounds of antibiotics a child takes, the more he or she could be at risk for developing juvenile arthritis, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics. According to an article on the New York Daily News website, the Rutgers University study found that children who were prescribed antibiotics were twice as likely to develop the autoimmune disease as children who didn't take the medication.

Researchers from Rutgers, the University of Pennsylvania, and Nemours A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware examined the medical histories of nearly 450,000 children under the Health Improvement Network, a United Kingdom database with health information on more than 11 million people.

Study findings

Of the 450,000 children in the study, 152 had juvenile arthritis. Researchers found that children who took antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections instead of other medications had a greater risk of developing arthritis when compared to children who had upper respiratory tract infections and did not take the drugs.

"This is an extremely important clue about the etiology of this serious and potentially crippling disease," Brian Storm, the study's senior author, told Rutgers University's Research News publication. "If confirmed, it also provides a means for preventing it."

Past studies suggested that antibiotics might not be needed to treat certain illnesses, and that they may be overused.

"Our research suggests another possible reason to avoid antibiotic overuse for infections that would otherwise get better on their own," Daniel Horton, one of the study's authors and a postdoctoral research fellow at Rutgers, told the university's Research News.

According to Horton, antibiotics can hurt the balance of microbes in the intestines and could contribute to inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.

More testing needed

Doctors, though, are still trying to learn what it is about antibiotics that appears to cause a higher risk of juvenile arthritis.

Researchers warned that more analysis needs to be done. They said that genetics and environmental factors may also trigger juvenile arthritis, and that antibiotics are not the sole cause for a child getting the illness. Horton added that a majority of children get antibiotics, but only one in 1,000 will develop arthritis.

Juvenile arthritis affects almost 300,000 children in the United States, reports the Arthritis Foundation. Diseases such as lupus, fibromyalgia, and mixed connective tissue disease fall under the juvenile arthritis definition. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4,300 to 9,700 children ages 16 and younger are diagnosed with arthritis in the U.S. every year.

For more on juvenile arthritis:

Understanding Juvenile Arthritis
Parenting a Child with Juvenile Arthritis
Do We Ever Really Grow Out of Our Growing Pains?