Celiac disease among short stature patients in Saudi Arabia, meta-analysis

Objectives: Previously, we retrieved sixteen studied concerning celiac disease (CD) among at-risk individuals in Saudi Arabia (SA) involving five studies concerning CD among short stature (SS) individuals. We present a characterization and meta-analysis for these five studies. Methods: Data from the relevant studies were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Inc) and the Comprehensive Meta-analysis (CMA) program. This study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, SA from March to July 2018. Results: All studies involved seroscreening, while endoscopies were used in three studies. The prevalence of seropositive-CD was 16.1% (95% confidence interval [CI]=11.7–21.7)with high heterogeneity (I2=83.576), while the prevalence of biopsy-proven CD was 6.7% (95% CI=4.6–9.5) with lower heterogeneity (I2=50.944). Anti-transglutaminase (Anti-tTG) antibodies were used in two studies (with anti-gliadin [AGA] in one and anti-endomysial [EMA] and AGA in the other). EMA alone was used in two studies, and one study was without details. Four studies occurred in the Riyadh region, and one study was in the Western region. Females with CD were 1.5 times more prevalent than males. Study subjects’ ages were 1.37–21 years. Conclusion: The prevalence of biopsy-proven CD (6.7%) was within the global range of 2.9% to 8.3% while the seroprevalence (16.1%) was high. No significant difference between the reported (by the studies) serologically-proven rates and biopsy-proven rates was noted (p = 0.205).