Swedish women with coeliac disease in remission use more health care services than other women: a controlled study

Abstract

Objective . To examine whether the perceived poor outcome of dietary treatment makes Swedish women with coeliac disease (CD) prone to use more health care services than other women. Material and methods. The health care consumption over 36 consecutive months was examined for 137 Swedish women aged 20–80 years with CD in remission after living on a gluten-free diet for a median of 4 years (range 1–8 years). Comparisons were made with the health care consumption of 411 women in the general population matched for age and residence. Results. The results show that women with CD use health care services annually a median of 5.0 times (range 0–76) that is more than female controls 3.6 (0–311) (p < 0.05) mainly in primary care and for complaints related to mental and behavioral disorders (ICD F), diseases of the digestive system (ICD K) and diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (ICD M). Conclusions. Women with CD used health care services in keeping with studies indicating reduced health-related quality of life of people with this condition. The results provide evidence that women with CD in remission suffer from co-morbidities that may signal a need for a multidisciplinary follow-up of subjects with CD in Sweden.

Key Words::

• Adults
• coeliac disease
• gluten-free diet
• health care consumption
• Sweden

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Lars Valter at The R&D Unit of Local Health Care and Mikael Åkerborg at the CDWO. The project was supported by grants from Östergötland County Council.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.