Prevalence of Celiac Disease Varies in Type 1 Diabetes

HealthDay News — Children with type 1 diabetes often have comorbid celiac disease, according to a study published online in Diabetes Care.

Maria E. Craig, MBBS, PhD, from the Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, and colleagues examined international differences in celiac disease prevalence, and compared clinical characteristics of children with coexisting type 1 diabetes and celiac disease versus type 1 diabetes only. Data were included for 52,721 individuals aged up to 18 years with a clinic visit between April 2013 and March 2014.

The researchers found that 3.5% of the participants had biopsy-confirmed celiac disease, which was diagnosed at a median age of 8.1 years. The prevalence of celiac disease varied, from 1.9% to 7.7% percent in the T1D Exchange Clinic Network (United States) and Australasian Diabetes Data Network (Australia), respectively. The age at diabetes diagnosis was younger for those with coexisting celiac disease compared to those with type 1 diabetes only (5.4 vs 7.0 years of age; P <.001), while fewer children with coexisting celiac disease were non-white (15% vs 18%; P <.001). Those with celiac disease had a lower height-standard deviation score (0.36 versus 0.48; adjusted P <.001), while fewer were overweight/obese (34% vs 37%; adjusted P <.001). The mean HbA1c values were comparable between the groups.

“Differences in celiac disease prevalence may reflect international variation in screening and diagnostic practices, and/ or celiac disease risk,” the authors write. “Although glycemic control was not different, the lower height-standard deviation score supports close monitoring of growth and nutrition in this population.”

Reference

Craig ME, Prinz N, Boyle CT, et al. Prevalence of celiac disease in 52,721 youth with type 1 diabetes: international comparison across three continents [published online May 25, 2017]. Diabetes Care. doi:10.2337/dc16-2508