The Investigation of Nutritional Status, Intestinal Permeability and Quality of Life in People With Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is defined as an autoimmune enteropathy that progresses with malabsorption of gluten protein found in wheat, barley, rye and small intestinal mucosal inflammation in individuals with genetic predisposition. Disruption of intestinal barrier integrity play role in the pathogenesis of celiac disease. Zonulin levels increase in the disruption of intestinal permeability in celiac patients.

At the present, the only treatment of celiac disease is life-long gluten-free diet and it requires strict gluten elimination . With compliance to gluten-free diet, thickening of intestinal mucosal layer, decreasing of villi atrophy and decreasing of transcellular infiltration are observed. In other studies, it was stated that adherence to gluten-free diet can repair intestinal permeability and decrease zonulin levels.

While compliance to gluten-free diet is a key point to prevent progression of the disease, nutritional quality of the gluten-free diet affects nutritional status of patients. Moreover,restricted diets in terms of energy or various nutrients affect health-related quality of life. In studies examining all aspects of celiac disease, it has been stated that health-related factors reduce the quality of life in celiac patients.

In conclusion, this study aims to investigate the presence of intestinal permeability with serum zonulin levels in celiac patients, to evaluate nutritional status of patients with anthropometric measurements and food consumption records, and to determine quality of life of patients with validated celiac disease questionnaire. This study in Turkey, is also first study that investigate all these three factors.