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Why are most celiac?s middle aged white women?
While there are many non believers those with celiac disease know that it is very real. Many non-believers believe being gluten free is all a selection, a fad which is why you mostly see middle aged ladies in restaurants asking for gluten free food. This may be the experience of several people but there are good reasons for this. This article explores the reasons and the statistics behind this apparent truth.

I once read in a forum by way of a brave restaurateur that he was puzzled why a lot of people who asked for gluten free food were middle aged females. He suggested that maybe it was only a trend factor ? eating to impress.

My thoughts on this view is that:

? many doctors don?t test for celiac disease or fully believe in its severity.

? Women tend to be more persistent at resolving their health issues,Guest Posting so more women could be identified as having celiac disease than men.

? Women could be more inclined to admit they want gluten free food when eating out.

? Men may eat at restaurants where they know they are able to get gluten free food, or if not they may eat foods which are unlikely to have gluten inside them, like steak and salad without dressing.

? Celiac Disease still remains very poorly diagnosed (80% undiagnosed in Australia and 95% in the us), therefore the disease seems much rare than it actually is.

Most of the home elevators age and sex profiles of the 'average celiac' appears to be anecdotal or on small sample sizes. We (Gluten Free Pages) ran a stand at the Melbourne Gluten Free show in October 2009, and the overwhelming demographic of individuals visiting our stand were woman, around middle age. Most of them were either with other women or their families.

Current celiac demographics:

Most coeliac reference sites concur that celiac disease isn't age-dependent and can become active at any age. ?It is thought that the prospect of CD may be within the body from birth even though onset isn't confined to a specific age range or gender ? more women are diagnosed than men.? Ref 1

The reason that more middle aged women appear to be celiac could be that the common time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis is frequently over ten years. In a normal family situation, more women may be the primary food shopper or person who orders for a family group at restaurants.

The trigger for celiac disease could also take until middle age to provide itself. A few of the common triggers are usually ? environmental, emotional or physical event in one?s life. Such as for example: adding solids to a baby?s diet, going through puberty, enduring a surgery or pregnancy, experiencing a stressful situation, catching a virus, increasing gluten products in the diet, or developing a infection to which the disease fighting capability responds inappropriately.? Ref 1


More information on celiac demographics can be acquired for Americans. "Prevalence of CD in the common American is 1 in 133, In people with related symptoms: 1 in 56; In people with first-degree relatives; (parent, child, sibling) that are celiac: 1 in 22; In people who have second-degree relatives (aunt, uncle, cousin) who are celiac: 1 in 39; Estimated prevalence for African-American, Hispanic-American and Asian-Americans: 1 in 236." (ref 2) It has been found that celiac disease is rare among folks of purely African-Caribbean, Japanese and Chinese ancestry.

As specifics about the age and sex profile of celiac have become rare, here is a novel way of seeing what the bias may be. Consider that the ones that are diagnosed and gluten intolerant are likely to be searching for info on celiac disease and gluten free foods. With a high internet penetration generally in most advanced countries and an excellent internet usage across most age groups, except potentially the elderly, statistics on internet search age and sex demographics will probably mirror the age and sex profiles of these people diagnosed and that are gluten intolerant.

Alexa provides a demographic snapshot of people to major sites and the following graphs and data are taken for three popular celiac and three gluten free websites.

Site............................Global ranking

www.celiac.com..................48,590

www.celiac.org..................486,285

www.celiaccentral.org...........559,962

www.glutenfree.com..............168,693

www.gluten.net..................855,378

www.glutenfreeda.com............996,079

Visitor Demographics

Age: All sites have a strong bias towards usage by older age groups. All sites were very under represented for the 18-24 age ranges. Most (except coeliac.com), show a solid bias towards visitors from the 55 to 64 age group being ?over represented?.

Education: When compared to average internet user, the visitors for half the sites have a solid bias towards visitors having a college background, but tend to be under represented from Graduate school backgrounds.

Gender: All sites show an extremely strong bias towards used more by females.

low carb bagels : Visitors generally have a neutral reaction to having children. Unlike another demographics, this measure shows probably the most variance among sites. The three celiac sites tended to have a slight bias towards visitors not having children, while two of the gluten free sites had a swing towards visitors having some children and one site (Glutenfreeda.com) had a very strong demographic of No children.

Browsing location: Most sites tended to get a strong bias towards visitors accessing the website from home rather than from work.

CONCLUSIONS

From a very small sample of three of the largest celiac sites and three large gluten free sites, it appears that compared to the general internet population that visitors have a bias towards being older (55 to 64) and female. Remember that this age demographic might not make up large proportion of total web users, so in absolute terms the common visitor could be somewhat younger.

Users tended to possess a college background (as opposed to the higher graduate level) and browse from home. This suggests that the center aged female visitors education level could be associated with their discovery of these celiac disease and could home based or be housewives.

At the moment because of food purchasing and family eating patterns it appears that eateries may perceive that the common celiac appears to be middle aged women.

Celiac disease affects all ages & most races in order diagnosis becomes more endemic and more doctors are aware of it, this spread and apparent gender bias will broaden.

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