Coeliac disease diagnoses have tripled among children in the UK over the last 20 years but those from poorer families are only half as likely to be diagnosed, new research shows.
The research from the University of Nottingham, published in the medical journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, shows that around 1 per cent of children have blood markers for the disorder and that the diagnosis rate between 2008 and 2012 was 75 per cent higher than it was between 1993 and 1997.
The researchers used a UK database called The Health Improvement Network (THIN), a representative database of anonymised health records, to compile the data.
They found a 53 per cent rise in diagnoses among girls and a 39 per cent increase among boys in the same period, which was representative across all four countries in the UK.
However, children from socioeconomically deprived areas were only half as likely to be diagnosed compared to children from better off backgrounds.
via Coeliac disease has tripled among British children in the last 20 years.
Could this increase in diagnoses be due to advances in Medicine or increased awareness of the disease? The research suggests the latter and I tend to agree. There is much more awareness of food intolerance’s in recent years which means more people look to find answers for their symptoms. What could be the reason for the difference in socioeconomic classes? This I do not know.
