Background: Celiac disease (CD) may affect healthcare use in children and young adults. Socio-economic factors may act as a confounder or effect modifier. We assessed such hypotheses in a population-based birth cohort of young celiac subjects and references matched by maternal education.
Methods: The cohort included all newborns recorded in the Medical Birth Register of Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region (Italy) between 1989 and 2011. CD incident cases were identified through pathology reports, hospital discharges and copayment exemptions and matched with up to five references by sex, year of birth and maternal education. Cox regression models were used to estimate Hazard Ratios (HRs) for major causes of inpatient diagnosis and drug prescription occurring after diagnosis in CD patients compared to references, stratifying by time of first event and maternal education.
Results: We identified 1294 CD cases and 5681 references. CD cases had a higher risk of hospital admission for any cause (HR: 2.34; 95 % CI 2.08-2.63) and for all major ICD9-CM categories except obstetric complications, skin and musculoskeletal diseases, and injuries and poisoning. Prescription of all major ATC drug categories, except dermatologicals and genito-urinary medications, was significantly increased in CD subjects. For most outcomes, HRs were highest in the first year after CD diagnosis but remained significant after five or more years. HRs were similar across different categories of maternal education.
Conclusions: Diagnosed CD subjects had a higher risk of hospitalization and medication use compared to the general population, even five or more years after diagnosis, with no effect modification of maternal education.