Does How You Are Born Influence Your Odds of Developing Celiac Disease?

Celiac.com 05/09/2018 - Is there a difference in celiac disease rates between people born via cesarian section versus those born via natural birth? To answer that question, a team of researchers recently set out to investigate the association between mode of delivery and the risk of celiac disease in two large population-based birth cohorts with different rates of diagnosed celiac disease.

The research team included Stine Dydensborg Sander, Anne Vinkel Hansen, Ketil Størdal, Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen, Joseph A Murray, and Steffen Husby. They are variously affiliated with the Hans Christian Andersen Children’s Hospital, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark; the Institute of Clinical Research, Faculty of Health Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; the Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; the Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark; the Department of Child Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; the Department of Pediatrics, Ostfold Hospital Trust, Grålum, Norway; and the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.

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For their observational register-based cohort study, the team used data from administrative and health registers from Denmark and Norway and linked the data at the individual level.  Their study group included all children born in Denmark from January 1, 1995 to December 31, 2010 and all children born in Norway from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2012.

The study group included included 1,051,028 children from Denmark, and 537,457 children from Norway. In total, cesarean sections 286,640 children were delivered by cesarian section, while a total of 3,314 children were diagnosed celiac disease. 

The team found no connection between the mode of delivery and the risk of diagnosed celiac disease. 

The adjusted odds ratio for celiac disease for children delivered by any type of cesarean section compared to vaginal delivery was 1.11 (95% CI: 0.96–1.29) in the Danish cohort and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.84–1.09) in the Norwegian cohort. The adjusted odds ratio for celiac disease for children delivered by elective cesarean section compared to vaginal delivery was 1.20 (95% CI: 1.00–1.43) in the Danish cohort and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.79–1.17) in the Norwegian cohort.

This large registry-based study provides strong evidence that the mode of birth delivery does not have any influence on whether a child will go on to develop celiac disease.

Source:

• Clin Epidemiol. 2018; 10: 323–332.Published online 2018 Mar 19. doi: 10.2147/CLEP.S152168