Prevalence of Malnutrition among Pediatric Celiac Disease

Purpose: Celiac Disease (CD) is an autoimmune systemic disorder triggered by gluten in genetically susceptible individuals, which can lead to chronic malabsorption. Considering the changes in the manifestations of CD.The present study was designed to determine the nutritional status and prevalence of malnutrition of celiac disease in children and to investigate the nutritional markers, anthropometric parameters such as body mass index (BMI), meal patterns ,and routine laboratory in celiac disease children Methodology: This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the children with CD who had referred to Pediatric gastroenterology Clinic between 2021 and 2022. Totally, 40 children were eligible, and their weight, height, and Body Mass Index (BMI) were extracted by interview. The anthropometric indices were presented based on the criteria of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO). Biochemical tests were obtained during the study period from medical files of the studied patients. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The Chi-Square test was applied to examine the study data. Findings: Data shows that 52% of CD children were well-nourished while the remaining 45%, 3%had moderate -to-severe malnutrition. Regarding the height for age and weight for age 20% of the participants had short stature, 80% were normal stature, in addition ,40% of the patients had sever wasting for age and 43% had normal weight for age. Based on the CDC's criteria 20%,65%, 10%, and 20% low BMI, normal BMI, overweight, and obese for age respectively. In addition, results show that most of CD children had normal hemoglobin level with low level of vitamin D. Regarding to meals pattern of CD children result revealed that the most kind of food daily intake was milk and white bread while there was not daily consumed of ice cream and whole wheat bread. Conclusion: To sum up, the results clearly indicated that growth failure and low height, weight, and BMI were less prevalent among the studied group of children with CD. Early diagnosis of celiac disease is very important to prevent long-term complications, early initiation of nutritional intervention and treatment is important. Currently, the only effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet.