HIGH PREVALENCE OF FOOD INSECURITY AMONG CHILDREN WITH CELIAC DISEASE.

Background and Aim: Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic immune-mediated enteropathy caused by dietary gluten. Gluten-free diet (GFD) is the only medical treatment in individuals with celiac. Removing gluten from the diet likely changes the overall access to food. The classic feature of CD is malabsorption syndrome resulting in malnutrition. Food insecurity (FI), defined as a lack of access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food is associated poorer nutritional status. The present study aimed to investigate FI in children and adolescents suffering from CD.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 62 known cases of CD (both males and females), were interviewed for assessing FI through a disease-specific food insecurity questionnaire designed for children with CD. Anthropometric indices were also measured. The data are reported as Mean ± standard deviation [SD].Results: Sixty-two patients, 36 females (58.1%) and 26 (41.9%) males, were surveyed. The age of participants was 11.04 ±3.8 years. The mean of weight (kg) and height (cm) was 34.69± 17.96 and 139.06 ± 0.22 respectively. The mean FI score was 3.4 ±2.25 which means insecurity without starvation (mild FI). The results showed that 30.6% of patients were food secure, 35.5 % were insecure without starvation, 24.2% insecure with mild starvation, and 9.7% insecure with intense starvation (severe insecurity).Conclusion: The overall prevalence of FI was 69.4% among children. Proposed strategies are needed to improve compliance with gluten-free diet. Also producing especial cheaper products with food labeling and better education about the diet would decrease the risk of FI in this population.

کلیدواژه ها:

child ، gluten enteropathy ، food insecurity ، gluten-free diet