Dietary adherence is not dependent on the mode of diagnosis in children with coeliac disease

Abstract

AbstractAimTo compare the adherence to gluten‐free diet between children with serology‐based and biopsy‐proven coeliac disease.MethodsMedical records were retrospectively reviewed in 257 Swedish children diagnosed with coeliac disease between 2012 and 2019 at a tertiary hospital. Adherence to a gluten‐free diet was systematically assessed by trained dietitians at follow‐up. Mixed models were used to analyse the dietary adherence by mode of diagnosis (serology‐based vs. biopsy‐proven).ResultsAfter mean 6.3 (SD 2.4) years, there was neither a difference in the dietary adherence over time depending on the mode of diagnosis (OR 0.64 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.26, 1.60], p = 0.342), nor if coeliac disease was detected in screening studies (OR 0.74 [95% CI 0.25, 2.17], p = 0.584) or in risk‐groups (OR 1.01 [95% CI 0.26, 3.91], p = 0.991) compared to clinically detected diagnosis. Non‐adherence to a gluten‐free diet increased with age (OR 1.19 [95% CI 1.06, 1.33], p = 0.003). There was no difference in the proportion of patients improving their dietary adherence from non‐adherent to adherent over time (p = 0.322).ConclusionMode of diagnosis did not influence the dietary adherence in Swedish children with coeliac disease, although adherence to a gluten‐free diet was inversely associated with increasing age.