Increasing death risk with undiagnosed coeliac disease

Tuesday, 01 September 2009 15:11

A study by the Mayo Clinic in the US has found coeliac disease has become much more common in the last 50 years. It is now 4 times more prevalent than it was in the 1950s, and now affects about 1 in 100 people.

Undiagnosed coeliac disease was found to be associated with a nearly 4-fold increased risk of death, and the prevalence of undiagnosed coeliac disease seems to have increased dramatically in the same period.

In conducting the study, blood samples that had been collected at the Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming between 1948 and 1954 were tested. The results were compared with those from two recently-collected sets of blood samples from people in Olmsted County, Minneapolis.

The researchers believe something has changed in the environment to make the disease much more prevalent, but what this might be is still unknown. Given the higher death rate from undiagnosed coeliac disease, the authors suggest screening for coeliac disease in the general population may become necessary.

Reference: Gastroenterology, Volume 137, Issue 1, Pages 88-93, July 2009