Abstract
Backgrounds: Limited data was reported for the frequency of SLE in China. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency, geographical, and ethnic distributions of hospitalized SLE patients with data from the Hospital Quality Monitoring System (HQMS) in China.Methods: Hospitalized patients were investigated from a national inpatient database covering 46.0% of tertiary hospitals in China from 2013 to 2017. Data regarding the diagnosis of SLE were extracted based on ICD-10 codes. We collected and analyzed data from the front page of the records of inpatients, including frequency, demographic characteristics, and geographic distributions of SLE.Results: Among 158.3 million inpatients attended during the study period, 0.31% (491, 225) were diagnosed with SLE. The frequency of SLE decreased during the study period (from 0.30% in 2013 to 0.27% in 2017). The frequency of SLE increased with latitude (0.21% in northern China and 0.39% in southern China in 2017). Hospitalizations mostly occurred in winter (31.24%). The Li population had the highest frequency of patients with SLE (0.76%). The all-cause in-hospital mortality rate of SLE decreased from 0.74% (255/34,746) in 2013 to 0.54% (295/54,168) in 2017. The percentage of SLE patients with infections increased from 3.14% in 2013 to 4.72% in 2017. The percentage of SLE patients with tumors and thrombosis also increased slightly from 0.85 and 1.43% in 2013 to 1.27 and 2.45% in 2017, respectively.Conclusion: This study provided epidemiological information of SLE in hospitalized patients in China for the first time. An ethnic and spatial clustering trend of SLE was observed.
Highlights
Systemic lupus erythaematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disease that can affect multiple systems, including the kidneys, brain, haematologic system, and so on [1]
The frequency of SLE decreased during the study period
The frequency of SLE increased with latitude (0.21% in northern China and 0.39% in southern China in 2017)
Summary
Systemic lupus erythaematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disease that can affect multiple systems, including the kidneys, brain, haematologic system, and so on [1]. Tremendous improvements in the diagnosis and medical care of SLE have resulted in an increase in the 5-year survival rate to over 90% and the 15–20-year survival rate up to about 80% since the 1950s, which include earlier diagnosis, renal replacement, dialysis, and medication [2]. The estimated prevalence of SLE might be useful in health care planning by increasing our understanding of the burden of disease. The incidence and prevalence rates in people of African or Asian backgrounds were ∼2–3-times higher than those in white populations, and higher mortality risks have been observed among the black and Hispanic populations than among white (or majority) populations [5]. A large population-based epidemiological study indicated that the incidence of SLE in UK, southern USA, southern Sweden, and South Korea decreased and the prevalence increased [6,7,8]
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