title: Coeliac disease in children: a social epidemiological study in Sweden.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little is known on the possible existence of socioeconomic and geographical differences in early coeliac disease (CD) risk. Therefore, we investigated these aspects in children before age two.
  
  
  METHODS
  Linking the Swedish Medical Birth Registry to several other national registries, we identified all singletons born in Sweden from 1987 to 1993 (n = 792,401) and followed them until 2 years of age to identify cases of CD. Applying multilevel logistic regression analysis, we investigated the association between socioeconomic position (SEP) and CD in children and also whether a possible geographical variation in CD risk was explained by individual characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Low SEP was associated with CD in boys OR 1.37 (95% CI 1.03-1.82), but not in girls OR 0.87 (95% CI 0.68-1.12). We found a considerable geographical variation in disease risk (i.e. intra-municipality correlation ≈ 10%) that was not explained by individual characteristics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Low SEP is associated with CD in boys but not in girls. Also, CD appears to be conditioned by geographical area of residence. While our study represents an innovative contribution to the epidemiology of CD in children, the reasons for the observed geographical and socioeconomic differences could be speculated but are still unknown.
authors.affiliation: Unit for Social Epidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden. carl_johan.wingren@med.lu.se
authors.forename: Carl Johan
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Wingren
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Björck
authors.forename: Kristian F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohlsson
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Agardh
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Merlo
mesh_terms: D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012923:Social Class; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology