Kim J, Chun J, Lee C, et al. - Since the association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) remains unclear, researchers used a nationwide population-based study to assess the risk for developing IPF in IBD patients. Patients with IBD, including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), were identified through both the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems and rare and intractable disease program codes from January 2010 to December 2013 using claims data from the National Health Insurance service in Korea. They compared 38,921 IBD patients with age-matched and gender-matched people without IBD in a ratio of 1:3. According to findings, the incidence of IPF in IBD patients was 33.21 per 100,000 person-years during a mean 4.9-year follow-up. Findings suggested that IBD patients, particularly CD patients, are at increased risk of developing IPF. In male patients, the risk of developing IPF was higher in patients with IBD than in female patients.