Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Infants have Decreased Celiac Disease Autoimmunity During Childhood and Adolescence.

ABSTRACT

Little is known about the effect of prematurity on later development of celiac disease (CD). We conducted a retrospective analysis of real-world data examining the association between very low birth weight (VLBW) prematurity and later development of CD autoimmunity (CDA) in 3580 infants born between years 2000 and 2012 and their matched controls. At a median of 12 years, VLBW prematurity was negatively associated with later development of CDA with a cumulative prevalence of 5.9 per 1000 versus 10.3 per 1000 (P = 0.02), though more former VLBW premature infants were ever tested for CDA (48.5% vs 37.4%, P < 0.001). The odds ratio for developing CDA among children born preterm at VLBW was 0.57 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.35-0.92) as compared with matched controls. There was no difference in clinical characteristics of CDA between both groups. In conclusion, VLBW preterm infants present a decreased risk for the development of CDA during childhood and adolescence.