Questionnaire‐based survey to determine an at‐risk group for coeliac disease among school children in Moscow, Russia

Abstract

Aim Coeliac disease (CD) is a chronic digestive disorder which presents in diverse ways and is under‐diagnosed. The purpose of this study was to provide insights into suspected CD among Russian schoolchildren, through defining the percentage of participants in an ‘at‐risk’ group for CD in a paediatric cohort, by means of a questionnaire as a primary screening tool. Methods Russian school children of both sexes age 7‐18 years were enrolled in a population‐based study to identify individuals affected by CD. Each participant was presented with a structured questionnaire based on criteria that can be used to reveal symptomatic signs of CD. Following on, we developed a case‐finding strategy for the ‘at‐risk’ group, based on serological and genetic testing and, where possible, endoscopic examination of participants. Results 10.2% of questionnaire respondents (312/3070) were classified as an at‐risk group. Pathobiological CD analysis of this group returned positive test results for 13.5% of participants (42/312), and 0.6% of them (2/312) had CD confirmed by biopsy sample analysis. Conclusions Our findings suggest that at‐risk groups among children with symptomatic or some oligosymptomatic CD presentations can be identified through adopting a questionnaire as part of a population‐based screening survey, if generally accepted screening programs are inaccessible.