Rates of Gluten-Related Disorders as High as 11.8% in Some Asia-Pacific Groups

Celiac.com 03/05/2019 - The mechanics of how celiac disease and gluten-related disorders develop is still poorly understood. In order to shed light on the subject, a team of researchers recently conducted a systematic review of the current epidemiological knowledge of gluten-related disorders. They focused on variations in reported cases and rates of gluten-related disorders in the Asia-Pacific region.
 
The research team included Sara Ashtari, Mohamad Amin Pourhoseingholi, Kamran Rostami, Hamid Asadzadeh Aghdaei, Mohammad Rostami-Nejad, Luca Busani, Mostafa Rezaei Tavirani, and Mohammad Reza Zali.

For their reviews, the team searched Medline, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane database for material published from January 1991 to January 2018. They searched the following MeSH terms and keywords: celiac disease, wheat allergy, non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), dermatitis herpetiformis and gluten ataxia and the prevalence studies. Each article was cross-referenced with “Asia-Pacific region” and countries in this region such as Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and others.

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They found a total of 66 suitable studies that chronicled rates of gluten-related disorders in the Asia-Pacific region. They found celiac disease rates of 0.32%-1.41% in healthy children, and 0.05%-1.22% in the adult population, while rates in the high risk population ran as high as 11.8%. Earlier studies have shown few cases of dermatitis herpetiformis and gluten ataxia. Interestingly, even though wheat allergy is uncommon in most Asian-Pacific countries, it’s the most common cause of anaphylaxis. 

This review emphasizes how little good information we have, and how much we need more and better epidemiological studies to reveal the origins and development of gluten-related disorders, and to better measure their effects upon health care delivery.

Read more at: J Gastrointestin Liver Dis, March 2019 Vol. 28 No 1

They are variously affiliated with the Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; the Departments of Gastroenterology, Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Milton Keynes, UK; the Basic and Molecular Epidemiology of Gastrointestinal Disorders Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; the Department of Infectious Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy; and the Proteomics Research Center, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.