Fig. 1

Flowchart of the study. The study cohorts, that represented the population of Finland at respective time points, consisted of individuals who participated in Health 2000 and 2011 surveys and had available data on celiac disease and gluten-free diet and had provided serum sample for the measurement celiac disease antibodies. The diagnosis of celiac disease was based on patient´s responses and supplementary medical registry data with addition of those subjects having positivity in both tissue transglutaminase and endomysial antibodies. “People avoiding gluten without celiac disease” refers to subjects who avoid dietary gluten without celiac disease diagnosis and had negative celiac disease antibodies