Letter: smoking as a modifiable risk factor for a complicated course in Crohn's disease

We read the paper by De Bie et al. with interest.1 The authors examined patient-awareness of the effects of smoking on the natural history of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The majority of IBD patients seemed unaware of the fact that smokers have an increased risk of developing Crohn's disease, an increased likelihood of requiring surgery, and higher rates of recurrence after surgery. Given that the association between smoking and an...