A study, published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology, examined the incidence of Clostridium difficile infection in celiac disease patients.
Researchers identified 28,339 patients with celiac disease and 141,588 controls at pathology departments in Sweden over a 39-year period, from July 1969 through February 2008. Neither the celiac disease patients nor the controls had a history of C. diff.
The study shows that the incidence of C. diff infection was 56 per 100,000 person-years among patients with celiac disease and 26 per 100,000 person-years among controls.
Additionally the risk of C. diff infection was highest in the first year after celiac disease diagnosis. The risk of C. diff infection remained high for celiac disease patients one to five years after diagnosis as compared to controls.
Antibiotic data was available for 251 of the 493 patients with C. diff infection. Researchers found no significant differences between celiac disease patients and controls with regard to prior exposures to antibiotics.