Celiac Disease - NIH Consensus Development Program - National ...

identified by surveys or through solicitation of celiac societies; or reported incidence without apopulation density denominator. Study data was abstracted using a predetermined electronicform by one reviewer, and verified by another. The quality of reporting of the included studieswas assessed.Data SynthesisThe prevalence and incidence data were anticipated to be quite heterogeneousconsidering the different, countries, age groups, and risk characteristics of the studied patients.Attempts were made to group studies by age group, study population, and serological screeningmethod. If the grouped studies did not show evidence of heterogeneity, pooled estimates of theprevalence were produced for that group of studies; otherwise a descriptive presentation of thedata with a qualitative systematic review was conducted. For pooled estimates, statisticalheterogeneity was assessed along with 95 percent confidence intervals.Results and ConclusionsThe literature search yielded 2,116 references. Of these, 119 articles, were included in thereview. Of these studies, 42 assessed the prevalence and/or incidence of CD in a generalpopulation. Twelve of the 42 reported on the incidence of CD, and 30 reported on theprevalence. Studies of the prevalence of CD in populations at risk were divided as follows: 18studies of the first-degree relatives of CD patients and 34 studies in patients with type 1 diabetes.Studies of the prevalence of CD in patients with associated clinical presentations were divided asfollows: 12 studies in iron-deficiency anemia, 4 studies in metabolic bone disease, and 13 studiesof patients with suspected CD. Several studies included data for multiple at risk groups.IncidenceThe crude incidence of CD among western European and North American countries overthe past 25 years has varied between 1 and 51 per 100,000, and the cumulative incidence by age5 between 0.118 and 9 per 1,000 live births. Important methodological differences existed amongthe studies, from using patient registers to identify patients to actively screening at-risk groups.The true incidence of CD is likely greater than reported.PrevalenceThe included prevalence studies demonstrated important differences in execution, testsfor prevalence assessment, patient sampling, rates of biopsy confirmation, and histological gradedefining CD. The prevalence of CD in the general unselected populations of North America andWestern Europe is quite high and likely falls within the range of 0.5–1.26 percent (1:200 to1:79). Smaller sample-size studies tended to give wider estimates ranging from 0.17 to2.67 percent. Among the studies from the United States, the range of prevalence was0.4–0.95 percent in adults, and 0.31 percent in children. In Italy, the range of prevalence wasbetween 0.2 and 0.8 percent, whereas the Scandinavian countries, Ireland, and the UnitedKingdom, tended to show a higher prevalence of CD of approximately 1.0–1.5 percent .58