Assessment of dietary patterns in celiac disease patients using factor analysis method and their relationship with dietary intakes and body mass index

Abstract Background/Objectives Celiac disease (CD) is a systemic and autoimmune enteropathy of the gastrointestinal tract with malabsorption characteristics. The only effective treatment for CD is adhere strictly to a gluten-free diet (GFD) throughout life. We evaluated the dietary patterns in celiac disease patients and their association with dietary intakes and anthropometric measurements in Iran. Subjects/Methods This is a case-control study on 182 participants who were referred to the Khuzestan Celiac Association, Iran. Nutritional information was collected using a validated 147-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). The software Stata (StataCorp, Version 14.0) was used to analyze the data. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to obtain participants’ dietary patterns. Results A significant relationship was observed between age and body mass index (BMI) across quartiles of the healthy dietary pattern score (P < 0.001, P = 0.001, and P = 0.001, respectively), indicating that as age and BMI increased, participants demonstrated greater adherence to the healthy dietary pattern. Individuals with the highest adherence to the healthy dietary pattern had the lowest odds ratio for celiac disease (CD) (Q1: reference; Q2: 1.96, 95% CI: 0.84–4.55; Q3: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.27–1.42; Q4: 0.10, 95% CI: 0.03–0.33, P trend < 0.001), and this association remained significant after adjusting for BMI (adjusted P trend = 0.003) and energy intake (adjusted P trend < 0.001). Moreover, there was a significant association between the lowest odds ratio for CD and the highest adherence to the unhealthy dietary pattern after adjustment for energy intake (Q1: reference; Q2: 0.38, 95% CI: 0.13–1.12; Q3: 0.21, 95% CI: 0.06–0.71; Q4: 0.07, 95% CI: 0.02–0.29, adjusted P trend < 0.001). Additionally, a significant association was observed between the odds ratio for CD and the mixed dietary pattern score (Q1: reference; Q2: 6.01, 95% CI: 2.29–15.72; Q3: 2.47, 95% CI: 0.93–6.55; Q4: 4.84, 95% CI: 1.84–12.66, P trend = 0.02), and this association remained significant after adjustment for energy intake (adjusted P trend < 0.001). Conclusions The findings of the present study indicate that individuals who adhere to healthy dietary patterns have a lower incidence of celiac disease.