A pilot study to estimate prevalence of Celiac disease in high risk-group in Asia (Asian celiac disease Study)

Until The 1970s, celiac disease (CeD) was considered to be an uncommon disease except forin western Europe, the global epidemiology of CeD now continues toevolve with improvement in the diagnostic tests, simplification of thediagnostic criteria and increase in awareness about the disease. Celiac disease is now a global disease and 0.7% of the worldpopulation is estimated to have CeD. While thereis a global burden of 37 million to 59 million patients, current studies estimatethat in most populations, over 80% of people with CeD remain undiagnosed. The Asian region is currently at the crossroads of the frontierof knowledge and awareness of CeD. In many Asian nations**,** CeD is stillconsidered to be either non-existent or very rare. Anotable exception is India, where CeD has been well recognized. In a pan-India population-based study, including 23,000 subjects,we have shown that about 6-8 million Indians have celiac disease and a vastmajority of them remain undiagnosed. Initial reports from Malaysia, China,Japan and Singapore suggest the existence of CeD in these countries. Ameta-analysis of studies published from Asia, suggest that 0.6% of Asians haveCeD. Furthermore, a meta-analysis of the predisposing factors predicts a highprobability of occurrence of CeD in fair numbers in China. There are no formal reports on CeD from Indonesia, Korea, Taiwanand many other nations in this region. It is thusappropriate that the medical community across Asia define the extent of the problem andget prepared to handle an impending epidemic of CeD.

We, therefore, propose a pilot study to estimate the prevalenceof CeD in high-risk group patients in certain Asian countries.