To Örebro University

Celiac disease (CD) is an immune‐mediated disease triggered by gluten intake and affects around 1% of the population worldwide. Although patients with CD have an increased use of healthcare, data on work disability remains scarce. To estimate work loss in patients with CD before and after diagnosis. We identified 16,005 working‐age patients with prevalent CD, and 4,936 incident working‐age patients diagnosed in 2008‐2015 through biopsy reports from Sweden’s 28 pathology departments. CD was defined by presence of villus atrophy (Marsh 3) on biopsy (gold standard). Each patient was compared to up to 5 matched general‐population comparators. Using nationwide social insurance registers, we retrieved prospectively‐recorded data on compensation for sick leave and disability. In 2015, patients with prevalent CD had a mean of 42.5 (95%CI: 40.9‐44.1) lost work days as compared with 28.6 (27.9‐29.2) in the general‐population comparators, corresponding to a relative difference of 49%. Among incident patients, the annual mean difference between patients and comparators was 8.0 (5.4‐10.6) lost work days 5 years before CD diagnosis, which grew to 13.7 (9.1‐18.3) days 5 years after diagnosis. In addition to the continuously increasing mean difference in lost work days over time, there was also a transient increase in work loss in patients with CD during the year of diagnosis (mean difference: 15.6 days, 95%CI: 13.1‐18.0). Patients with CD miss more work days than comparators before their diagnosis, and this loss increases and persists after diagnosis despite presumed installation of treatment with gluten‐free diet.