New Study Details the Struggles of Dating with Celiac Disease

Celiac.com 07/19/2022 - The challenges of having celiac disease are numerous. A number of studies and articles have documented the many challenges faced by people with celiac disease in eating out, going to college, and more.

Many people with celiac disease complain about difficulties in dating, or in finding suitable long term partners. Now, a new study is helping to shed some light on the nature of those challenges. To better understand the difficulties of navigating the social and dating landscape for people with celiac disease, a team of researchers recently set out to investigate dating-related behaviors in adults with celiac disease.

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The research team included Jessica Lebovits; Anne R. Lee; Edward J. Ciaccio; Randi L. Wolf; Rebecca H. Davies; Chloe Cerino; Benjamin Lebwohl; and Peter H. R. Green. They are variously affiliated with the The Celiac Disease Center, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; and the Program in Nutrition, Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.

The team invited nearly 12,000 biopsy-diagnosed affiliates of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University to participate in an online survey.  More than 5,000 opened the email, while 538 fully completed the survey, which included celiac-specific dating attitudes/behaviors questionnaire, a Social Anxiety Questionnaire (SAQ), a celiac-specific quality of life instrument (celiac disease-QOL), and a celiac disease Food Attitudes and Behaviors scale (celiac disease-FAB).

Nearly nine in ten respondents of the questionnaire were female. Nearly half had dated with celiac disease, the vast majority, nearly seventy percent said that celiac disease had a moderate to major impact on their dating life. 

A major to moderate impact was more commonly reported among females, 23–35-year-olds, those with a household income under fifty thousand dollars per year, and those with a lower overall celiac disease QOL scores. 

Nearly forty percent reported being uncomfortable explaining their gluten-free dietary precautions to waiters, nearly thirty percent engaged in riskier eating behaviors, and more than two in five women and one in five men hesitant to kiss their partner because of celiac disease.

The majority of celiacs who responded to the questionnaire felt that celiac disease had a major to moderate impact on their dating life. The affects can include hesitation toward dating and kissing, decreased QOL scores, greater social anxiety, and maladaptive eating attitudes and behaviors. 

Overall, the pressures of following a gluten-free diet have a major impact on dating and intimacy for people with celiac disease.

The results of this study will likely not be news to people with celiac disease, especially those who have tried to date tor to maintain social relationships. Stay tuned for more on this and related stories. 

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