Growing Up with Celiac Disease
By Elizabeth
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HLTH 3302

Introduction

Celiac disease (CD) is one of the most common chronic inflammatory conditions where individuals are incapable of digesting gluten products. Gluten products are food that contains wheat, rye, and barley, which is contained in dough. When gluten enters the small intestines, it attacks the villi and then interferes the absorption of nutrients from food. (National Foundation of Celiac Awareness, 2014) When this occurs, symptoms of abdominal pain, bloating, gas, constipation, decrease appetite, diarrhea, nausea, bloody or fatty stools occurs. According to the National Foundation of Celiac Awareness, unfortunately most patients are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed on CD because the disorder has numerous symptoms that are similar to other health problems. CD is starting to become more prevalent in this century and it can have a huge impact locally, nationally and internationally. This paper will discuss how the community has adapted to the increase in the numbers of people with CD.
History of Celiac Disease

According to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (2014) celiac facts, “6-10 years is the average time a person waits to be correctly diagnosed in the United States.” This is a long time considering it can have huge influence on a person’s quality of life. More research should be invested in CD to cut down for someone to get diagnosed. It is a disorder that many people may have but have no knowledge of it.
The World Gastroenterology Organisation Practice Guidelines (2007) explained how many experts saw celiac disease like an iceberg. How often it happens is the size of the iceberg, anything above the waterline is the number of diagnosed cases and anything below the waterline is the number of undiagnosed cases. It is actually a serious disorder that many people need to be educated about. Even Byass, Kahn, and Ivarsson (2011), says that celiac disease is a neglected global public health problem and that around 2.2 million children probably have undiagnosed CD. It does not only affect people nationally but internationally as well. An article “Increasing prevalence of coeliac disease over time” (2007) found that in other world, like Finland, CD has almost doubled during the time-span they have examined. It was 1.05% of the population (~52,000 people) in 1978-1980 to 1.99% in 2000-01 (~103,000 people). This is just Finland alone; Alberto et al (2009) also did a study on the prevalence of CD and found that it has increased dramatically over the past 50 years in the US. This is a huge concern because it affects the global health.
Determinants of Health

Based on the Hamilton & Bhatti’s Model for population health promotion, the determinants of health that has influenced this issue are the following:
Personal Health and Practices and Coping Skills
Social Support Networks and Health Services
Personal Health and Practices and Coping Skills

It is very important to learn healthy personal practices and coping skills to be more self-reliant and have better choices to enhance one’s own health. Especially with CD, there are several ways to learn about how to cope with CD and they are easily accessible in person or even on the internet. An example of a website that helps people on how to deal with CD is the National Foundation of Celiac Awareness. Their purpose is to empower, educate, advocate and have advanced research on CD and their goal is to improve the quality of life for those who have CD. They are a great website to go to for resources but CD does not only affect a person in a physical way. It actually can affect a person on a psychological and social way.
A study was actually done on the impact of CD on a social and interpersonal interaction level. The article “You Can’t Eat WHAT? Managing the Stigma of Celiac Disease” (2014) has the conclusion that older adults are more able to manage CD than younger individuals.