research

13/20

University of Florida

Nutrition and Disease II

Research Assignment

Oriana Carrasco

1. In your own words, describe celiac disease and the primary treatment/therapy for celiac disease.

Celiac disease is commonly known as an autoimmune response after the ingestion of gluten. As a celiac patient, digesting food that contains gluten will cause the small intestine to be super sensitive and that will lead to a serious difficulted digestion process causing abdominal pain. There is not and specific treatment for celiac disease yet, the only thing that would be effective is having a completely gluten free diet.

2. Article 1

a) What was the author’s purpose for conducting this study?

They created a survey that was designed to assess information to evaluate further treatment and adherence – But why did they create the survey? What question were they trying to answer?

b) Describe the participants in this study

Socioeconomic: specifically made to study how activities are presented in the social environment and how it is shaped by social processes depending on region and other factors.

Demographic: Data provided by participants to find a determination. Missing details in results section of characteristics of participants. This question is asking you to describe the actual people that participated in the project. Example, sex, race, types of diseases, etc.

c) What is treatment burden? How did this study assess “treatment burden”?

Treatment burden is defined as the load of healthcare for patients with severe diseases, in this case, with celiac disease. Sometimes it can be contradictory having lack of adherence and negative outcomes from patients carrying the disease. Stata was implemented to drive statistic analysis. What tool, or type of tool/survey was used to measure treatment burden?

d) What How was adherence to a gluten free diet and presence of celiac symptoms measured?

Poor adherence was identified and there are some important factors that should be considered when concluding the adherence. Maintaining a gluten free diet is difficult, “restrictions” everywhere, limited food and lack of education regarding this disease are causing a bad adherence to it. Concerns with prices is also an important factor that should be considered, eating outside while being on a gluten free diet is barely impossible and preparation of that type of food in our house sometimes could be even more expensive.

Symptoms are strong if diet is not followed, based on proper experience. Abdominal pain could take you to the ER due to the intolerable heartburn that is caused by gluten. This question is asking specifically for the names of the surveys also.

e) What were the overall primary findings of the study? What characteristics of participants with celiac disease were associated with increased adherence to a gluten free diet? Decreased adherence to a gluten free diet?

The primary goal of the article was to evaluate the patient perception of the disease and to evaluate how treatment burden was with comparison of other serious diseases. Asking primary findings rather than goal. So essentially, what did they find?

Characteristics of participants – ? this information is missing? So what is different about patients with celiac disease that adhere to a gluten free diet versus those that do not adhere well?

In order to have a good adherence, diet must be followed. Females showed on the statistics a higher adherence to a gluten free diet. However, it remains poor. It is hard to maintain a gluten free diet since that is the only way to take care of celiac disease, some aspects were mentioned below but besides those, lack of time is also a factor that does not contribute to a good adherence.

f) Figures

Treatments between GERD and CD are different in every aspect. The main difference of those diseases referring to treatment is the daily diet that should be followed. GERD is caused by acid reflux. Therefore, protein inhibitors or receptor blocker medication should be used, there also numerous of medicines that can be used to help with the heartburn. It is important to know that a gluten free diet is suggested but no obligatory as it is on patients with celiac disease which technically explain the difference in treatment burden.

Personally, I was surprised that patients with celiac disease reported importance of treatment higher that all other conditions. A few years ago, I had to maintain a gluten free diet for 3 months because of an abdominal pain that I was experimenting after eating bread, pasta or crackers, it was very hard to follow a strict gluten free diet for 3 months that I could never imagine how hard it should be to cut gluten completely out of our diet.

Article 2

1. What was the authors primary purpose for conducting this study?

To study the outcome of individuals living with a gluten free diet since there are concerns about how the cut of those aliments can cause some type of anxiety or fatigue. Be more specific here. So in additional to anxiety and fatigue – what else were they looking to learn and do with the information?

2. Describe the participants in the study

- Demographic: data provided by participants

-Medical: age, gender, ethnicity, self-described race missing details

3) How are participants categorized as “hypervigilant” or not?

Cooking at home and using the internet sites in a positive way potentially increased the hypervigilance. Also, negative results came back too, and more empathy should be implemented to people with CD since it can cause severe depression or anxiety, we all should be alert of mental health. -Happy people are healthy people. They used very specific criteria from dietary recalls to classify participants as “hypervigilant” or not – what was this information?

4) Primary finding of the study

Highlights on potential negative consequences after a severe/strict gluten free diet.

5) Main barriers and facilitators for adults and tens

For adults, they stated that eating out caused some worries as cross contamination and not feeling good when they were asked about their diet. Limitations of restaurants and distrust of the gluten free menu which is key to feel safe while eating out of their home. On the other hand, they showed some important facilitators as having friends who gave them the support needed and having helpful apps or internet sited.

Facilitator aspects for teens were basically the same as the ones that adults mentioned. Some words as “embarrassed” came in and when it comes to barriers with teens, the most common was that they were scared of how their diet was going to be affected while in college.

Application

1) You are a healthcare provider that regularly counsels/treats patients with celiac disease. How would you use this information to tailor your approach/advice/treatment plan for your celiac disease patients?

Treating a patient will always be challenging and when it comes to diseases related to mental health, it should be taken care more carefully than anything. As a provider, I would work with my patient from the beginning of their journey as a celiac disease patient in combination with a psychologist to conduct the best treatment. I would approach to my patient in a unique manner where he/she will feel safe and not embarrassed about the situation. Trying to find out as many choices of food that I am aware of in order to make it easier. Sometimes not engaging with the patient will make them feel uncomfortable and that will lead to a failure plan which is the opposite of what we are looking for. Concluding a diet together as a team, evaluating favorite type of food and finding substitutes is a great idea. Is not about “cutting” everything out for their meal but finding the best match to make them feel that they are not missing everything.