“Celiac Disease Management: A Comparison Between a Celiac Center and the Community Setting”
“Celiac Disease Management: A Comparison Between a Celiac Center and the Community Setting”
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Not everyone living with celiac disease experiences the same quality of care during their diagnosis and management since their care is often dependent on their medical provider’s knowledge. This can mean that patients living in a community without access to a major celiac disease center of excellence may have different health outcomes than those patients who do have access. To learn more about this topic, Beyond Celiac teamed up with the Jefferson Celiac Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. In 2014, the study collaborators designed and distributed a questionnaire that included the validated surveys Celiac Dietary Adherence Test (CDAT) and Celiac Disease Quality of Life (CD-QOL). The questionnaire also asked about patients’ experiences with family member screening. |
We learned that patients cared for by a tertiary celiac center were significantly more likely to have their relatives screened for celiac disease than patients not cared for by a celiac disease specialist. However, both patient populations reported similar gluten-free diet adherence and quality of life outcomes. This particular finding may suggest that the type of resources patients access outside of the clinic setting impacts their health outcomes.
An abstract of this work was accepted as a poster presentation to the 16th International Celiac Disease Symposium in 2015. Learn more about this study by downloading the poster presentation here.
Study collaborators include Krawitz, S., Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital; Wrobel, P., Department of Internal Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University; Voorhees, K., Director of Healthcare Initiatives, Beyond Celiac; Barbieri, J., Department of Internal Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University; DiMarino, A., Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Beyond Celiac Scientific/Medical Advisory Council member; and Moleski, S., Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Note:
At the time this research was conducted, Beyond Celiac was known as the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. Learn more about the name change here.
