Background and aim: The pathogenesis of short stature in celiac disease (CD) is unknown. Obese children are generally taller than their non-obese peers; however, the role of adiposity on stature in CD is unclear. Our aim was to determine the association between adiposity and stature in CD.
Subjects and methods: We compared the anthropometric characteristics of prepubertal children of ages 3-12 years, with biopsy-proven CD (n=40) and who were not on gluten-free diet, to same aged, prepubertal non-CD children (n=50). Body mass index (BMI) was calculated using the formula weight/height². Sex-adjusted midparental target height (MPTH) standard deviation score (SDS) was calculated using National Children Health Statistics data for 18-year-old adults. Data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation.
Results: CD subjects had significantly lower BMI SDS than controls (0.61 ± 1.22 vs. 1.28 ± 1.60, p=0.027) but were not significantly shorter than the controls (-0.05 ± 1.21 vs. 0.21 ± 1.71, p=0.41). When the patients were subdivided into the normal-weight and overweight/obese groups, the normal-weight CD patients were of similar height as the normal-weight controls (p=0.76) but were significantly shorter than both the overweight/obese controls (p<0.001) and overweight/obese CD children (p<0.001). Interestingly, the overweight/obese CD children were significantly taller than the normal-weight controls (p=0.003). The MPTH SDS did not differ between the groups.
Conclusions: Overweight/obese prepubertal children with CD were taller than both their normal-weight CD peers and the normal-weight controls, but were of similar height as the overweight/obese control subjects.