Abstract

Author(s): Pelegrí Calvo, C.; Soriano del Castillo, J. M.; Mañes Vinuesa, J

Introduction: The objective of this work is to evaluate the nutritional status of a group of celiac patients from the Valencian Community through their anthropometric characteristics. A cross-sectional study was designed, in which all patients followed a iet without gluten during at least six months.

Material and methods: The sample was constituted by 2000 members of the Association of Celiacs of the Valencian Community (ACECOVA) of both sexes and different age ranges were passed to the questionnaires. The three provinces, Castellón, Valencia and Alicante were included. Finally, anthropometric data of 139 people with celiac disease were evaluated, between adults and children. Among the 84 adults, 77.4% were women. All participants were summoned to measure their weight and height in the laboratory of Anthropometries of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Valencia. The following anthropometric measures were selected: body weight, height and body mass index.

Results: 12% of the adult celiac population presents overweight and 5% obesity, much smaller proportions than in the general population and in the Valencian Spanish in particular. However, the proportions of underweight in 9% of celiac patients and normal weight in 74% surpass those of the healthy population.

Conclusions: Further investigation should be carried out about the compliance of the diet without gluten in gluten-free diets in order to obtain lower proportions of underweight, may be related to malnutrition