Published online Nov 14, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i42.15830
Revised: May 10, 2014
Accepted: May 25, 2014
Published online: November 14, 2014
AIM: To determine celiac disease (CD) prevalence and associated manifestations or risk factors in healthy adult Emiratis.
METHODS: It is a cross-sectional prospective study, recruiting 1197 (573 women and 624 men) healthy Emiratis between September 2007 and April 2008 among those who went to Al Ain Hospital to undertake the prenuptial examination. Test for anti-tissue transglutaminase (tTG) IgA antibodies was used for CD diagnosis. Subjects with positive results in the anti tTG antibodies assay were also tested for anti-endomysial (EMA) IgA antibodies. A structured interview was used to collect basic demographic and clinical recall data including: information on name, contact address, age, gender, education status, previous diagnosis of CD, diagnosis of CD in 1st degree relatives and history of “chronic diarrhea, anemia, headache, hepatitis, diabetes, tumor, and thyroid disorder”.
RESULTS: Fourteen blood samples (1.17%; 14/1197) were seropositive for CD. The latent CD seropositive patients were 13 women and 1 man and therefore the seroprevalence of CD was 1:86 (14/1197) for adult Emiratis: 1:44 (13/573) for women and 1:624 for men. Binary logistic regression revealed that history of chronic anemia (crude OR = 7.09; 95%CI: 2.32-21.61; P = 0.003) and being a woman (OR = 14.46; 95%CI: 1.89-110.91; P = 0.001) were associated with CD seropositivity. Whereas, the thyroid disorder showed a positive association with CD seropositivity that approach statistical significance (OR = 11.30; 95%CI: 1.32-96.95; P = 0.09) and therefore was included in the multiple logistic regression analysis, which showed that CD seropositivity is independently associated only with history of chronic anemia (OR = 4.58; 95%CI: 1.45-14.48; P = 0.01) and being a woman person (OR = 10.47; 95%CI: 1.33-82.14; P = 0.026).
CONCLUSION: Compared to men the CD seroprevalence among women was remarkably higher. The CD association with women and chronic anemia is of importance from a public health perspective.
Core tip: Celiac disease (CD) prevalence is unknown in United Arab Emirates. Screening for CD among adult Emiratis was done by using anti TtG antibodies and anti-endomysial antibodies (EMA) confirmed those positive. A structured interview was used to collect demographic data and clinical history. Eleven hundred ninety seven subjects were included in the study; the seroprevalence was 1:86 for all adults; 1:44 for women; 1:624 for men. Chronic anemia and being a woman independently associated significantly with CD seropositivity. To our knowledge, this is the first study on CD prevalence among Emiratis; reporting the highest gender difference in CD seroprevalence worldwide.