Birth weight, sex, and celiac disease: a nationwide twin study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Earlier research suggests that birth weight may be associated with celiac disease (CD), but the direction of association has been unclear potentially due to confounding effect from genetic and intrafamilial factors. Through within-twin analyses, we aimed to minimize confounding effects such as twins that share genetic and early environmental exposures.

Materials and methods

Using the Swedish Twin Registry, we examined the birth weight of 146,830 twins according to the CD status. CD was defined as having villous atrophy according to a small intestinal biopsy reports.

Results

The prevalence of diagnosed CD was 0.5% (n=669), and we included 407 discordant pairs of CD-non-CD twins. Comparing the 669 CD patients with non-CD twins, the association between birth we

SUBMITTER: Kuja-Halkola R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5689064 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature