An analysis of the Explorys database, which contains EHR data from 26 major US health care systems, linked celiac disease with a range of medical conditions, including gastroesophageal reflux disease, pancreatitis, colitis and autism, researchers reported at the World Congress of Gastroenterology at ACG2017.
The rate of celiac disease is almost 20 times higher in people with autism than in those without, for example, reported lead investigator Daniel Karb, MD, a second-year resident at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland.
He and his colleagues searched the Explorys database, which aggregates electronic health record data from 26 major integrated healthcare systems in the United States. Of 35,854,260 people in the database, 83,090 were diagnosed with celiac disease from 2012 to 2017. The overall celiac disease rate was 0.22%.
Prevalence of Diagnoses in People With and Without Celiac Disease (P < .0001 for All)
| Diagnosis | With Celiac Disease, % | Without Celiac Disease, % | Odds Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Migraine | 18.6 | 4.1 | 5.5 |
| Anxiety disorder | 25.9 | 8.7 | 4.0 |
| Arthritis | 28.9 | 8.4 | 4.9 |
| Dermatitis herpetiformis | 1.3 | 0.0 | 4563.5 |
| Liver disease | 23.2 | 4.2 | 7.1 |
| Gastroesophageal reflux disease | 36.8 | 13.0 | 4.5 |
| Eosinophilic esophagitis | 0.6 | 0.1 | 8.8 |
| Atrophic gastritis | 3.9 | 0.1 | 8.0 |
| Glossitis | 0.4 | 0.1 | 4.4 |
| Pancreatitis | 15.8 | 0.7 | 25.0 |
| Disorder of the pancreas | 17.2 | 1.1 | 19.0 |
| Cerebellar ataxia | 0.1 | 0.0 | 4.1 |
| Autism | 4.0 | 0.2 | 19.9 |
| Colitis | 25.9 | 4.2 | 8.4 |
| Turner syndrome | 0.1 | 0 | 17.8 |
| Down syndrome | 0.6 | 0.1 | 8.1 |
| Common variable immunodeficiency | 0.2 | 0.0 | 10.2 |
