Antibiotics don’t appear to increase a person’s risk of developing celiac disease, a new study says.

Patients with celiac disease had a 24% higher odds of antibiotic use compared to healthy siblings or members of the general public, researchers reported recently in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 

However, the odds of antibiotic use were even higher — 50% — among a group of people whose gut lining was normal, when they were compared to the general public, researchers said.

These results indicate that earlier studies that linked celiac disease to antibiotics reflect a heightened awareness of the disorder, in which the gut becomes inflamed if a person eats gluten.

“We do not see a causal link between celiac disease and antibiotics,” said lead researcher Dr. Maria Ulnes, a pediatrician and doctoral student at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

“Responsible antibiotic use is of course important, but there is no reason to avoid antibiotics due to a fear of contracting celiac disease,” Ulnes said in a news release.

For the study, researchers compared nearly 28,000 people with celiac disease to more than 133,000 matched controls and over 33,000 siblings.

They also compared more than 225,000 people with healthy gut linings to over 1 million others.

Results showed that higher odds of antibiotic use did not seem to influence risk of celiac disease, given that people with healthy guts were even more likely to have used antibiotics.

“It’s easy to think that celiac disease is a result of antibiotic exposure; however, the connections are much more complex,” Ulnes said.

“It’s possible that factors such as susceptibility to infection and dietary habits contribute to the development of celiac disease, possibly through an impact on the gut microbiota,” she said. “In this case, adequate use of antibiotics does not appear to pose a risk in itself.”