studies have made similar observations and up to 44% of the patients were found to be overweight or obese at the time of diagnosis of CeD. 2,3 Furthermore, many studies have uniformly shown that underweight patients at the time of diagnosis tend to gain weight on gluten-free diet (GFD). 4-6 Contradictory to that while 22% to 82% of overweight and obese patients gain weight on a GFD; 4,7 some of the overweight and obese patients with CeD lose weight on GFD. 6,8 As described above, many studies have looked into the effect of a GFD on BMI but the association between CeD and metabolic syndrome has not been explored in much detail. In a recent prospective study, Tortora et al. 9 reported an increase in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome from 2% at the time of diagnosis to 30% after 12 months of GFD. Although there is emerging evidence that a sizeable proportion of patients with CeD gain weight
Aims
Lockdown and restricted mobility due to the pandemic of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has severely affected the continuity of healthcare of patients with acute and chronic diseases. We evaluated the impact of COVID-19 on the adherence to gluten-free diet (GFD), symptom control, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with celiac disease (CeD).
Methods
A questionnaire, consisting of both ad-hoc and validated questions, was created after review of literature, group discussions, and expert meetings. Standardized questionnaires namely CeD adherence test (CDAT), celiac symptom index score, and CeD-related QOL were used. The web-based questionnaire was sent to 3130 patients via social media and 452 responses (14.4%) were received. Also, additional 68 patients (not available on any social media application) were interviewed telephonically by a trained dietitian.
Results
Overall, 505 patients (females: 318; mean age: 24.1±14.2 years) were included. While only 6.7% (
n
= 34) had poor compliance to GFD (CDAT > 17) before COVID-19 pandemic, it almost doubled to 12.6% (
n
= 64) during the COVID-19 pandemic times (
p
= 0.02). Furthermore, 4.9% (
n
= 25) of patients were diagnosed contacting COVID-19. Interestingly, 73.2% (
n
= 370) patients preferred online appointment than physical appointment. Most common difficulties faced during lockdown period were high delivery charges for getting gluten-free (GF) food at home (54.4%), increased prices of regular GF food (43.1%), and travelling long distance to arrange GF food (44.9%).
Conclusions
The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially affected the adherence, symptom control, and QOL in patients with CeD, attributable to unavailability, shortage of money, and heightened cost of GF food. The pandemic has offered an opportunity to practice teleconsultation approach for patients with CeD.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12664-021-01213-4.
Celiac disease (CeD) is a chronic, immune-mediated enteropathy that is precipitated by dietary gluten in genetically predisposed individuals expressing HLA-DQ2 and/or HLA-DQ8. In the current clinical practice, there are many serologic studies to aid in the diagnosis of CeD which include autoantibodies like IgA antitissue transglutaminase, antiendomysium, and antideamidated forms of gliadin peptide antibodies. Small intestinal biopsy has long been considered an essential step for the diagnosis of CeD. However, in the recent era, researchers have explored the possibility of CeD screening and diagnosis without endoscopy or biopsy. The newer emerging biomarkers of CeD appear promising in diagnostic evaluation and subsequent monitoring of disease. In this review of literature, we have explored the emerging biomarker-based diagnostic evaluation and monitoring of CeD.
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