There are almost 252 thousand people diagnosed with celiac disease to date, but the total cases could be more than double. This was revealed by the data, referring to 2022, of the latest annual report to Parliament on celiac disease from the Ministry of Health, presented last March 28 by Minister Orazio Schillaci. In fact, it is estimated that in Italy the celiac population is around 600 thousand individuals: the prevalence of the pathology is in fact around 1%.
Data from the annual report on celiac disease
In Italy, according to 2022 data, 251,939 celiacs have been diagnosed. 70% (176,054) of them belong to the female population, while the remaining 30% (75,885) belong to the male population. The majority of people with celiac disease live in Lombardy, which alone hosts over 46 thousand diagnosed individuals (18.4%), followed by Lazio and Campania, which respectively have more than 25 thousand and over 24 thousand celiacs. Most people diagnosed are between the ages of 18 and 59 (67%).
The national average prevalence, therefore, is 0.43%, well below the estimated one of 1%. The autonomous province of Trento and the regions of Tuscany and Valle d’Aosta record the highest prevalence, with 0.54%, while the lowest prevalence is observed in Veneto, with 0.34%. As regards the prevalence within the two sexes, it is observed that that in the female population is 0.58% and that in men is 0.26%.
Finally, the latest report to Parliament shows a recovery in diagnoses in 2022. In 2020 and 2021, in fact, there was a significant decrease in celiac disease diagnoses (7,729 and 8,582 respectively), obviously due to difficulties in accessing specialist visits and exams due to the pandemic. In 2022 the balance of diagnoses rose to 10,210, close to 11,179 in 2019.
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