17 September 2013

Research that was partly funded by Coeliac UK has found thatcoeliac disease affects six times more children living in Scotland now than it did in 1990.

A team from the University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University analysed the health records of children (under 16 years) from the South East Scotland who were newly diagnosed with the condition between 1990 and 2009.

They found that the rate of children being newly diagnosed with coeliac disease rose from 1.7 in every 100,000 children in 1990-1994 to 11.8 per 100,000 children in 2005-2009.

Dr Peter Gillett, of the University of Edinburgh's Department of Child Life and Health and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, who led the study, said: "This study confirms a trend we have seen on a daily basis in our local area of Lothian, Fife and Borders. It also confirms the need to look further at factors influencing why we are seeing more patients with coeliac disease- it is not only because people are more aware of the disease nor is it thanks to our improved tests.

"Although the number of patients that we are diagnosing with the disease is increasing, it is well short of the number of cases out there, as screening the general population would pick up around one in 100 people.

"The increase in pick-up has implications for families and the support from healthcare they require to maintain a strict lifelong gluten-free lifestyle once the diagnosis is made."

The research was recently published in the journal Paediatrics and was also partly funded by the Gloag family.

You can read the full press release on the University of Edinburgh's website.

For our statement on this press release see our Related Documents section to the right.