Trends in the prevalence and incidence of ankylosing spondylitis in South Korea, 2010\u20132015 and estimated differences according to income status

Jin-Sung Park,Seung-Woo Suh,Jae-Young Hong,Kyungdo Han,Ye-Soo Park

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-25933-4

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and incidence of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in South Korea, 2010–2015. This study was conducted using the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) database, which includes information on every patient diagnosed with AS. The incidence and prevalence of AS were evaluated by age, sex, and income status. The prevalence increased linearly by 7.7% annually, i.e., 31.62 in 2010 to 52.30 in 2015 (per 100,000 persons). During the study period, the incidence was 6.34 per 100,000 person-years. The prevalence peaked for both men and women in the age range 30–39 years. Incidence peaked for men in the age range 20–29 years, but peaked for women between ages 70 and 89. AS was 3.6 times more prevalent in men than in women, and the incidence in men was 2.1 times greater than in women. With respect to income status, the prevalence and incidence of AS were 3 times greater and 5 times greater, respectively, in medical aid recipients compared to individuals with other income levels. The trend of increasing AS prevalence and the observation that 14.3% of all patients newly diagnosed with AS are medical aid recipients have significant implications for healthcare planning.

Highlights

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease that can potentially lead to disabilities and skeletal disorder[1]
The incidence during the study period was 6.34(95% confidence interval (CI), 6.27 to 6.42) per 100,000 person-years
This study shows that between the study period of 2010 and 2015, annual incidence remained similar while the number of prevalence increased 7.7% every year

Summary

Introduction

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease that can potentially lead to disabilities and skeletal disorder[1]. Physical activity is often limited for patients with AS, and their quality of life, including work performance, deteriorates as the disease progresses[4,5]. This extended period during which the patients has AS places a burden on both the patient and on the national health economy as a whole[6]. There have been six hospital-based studies that examined the prevalence of AS using medical records with large sample sizes (population sample of more than 100,000) until now[7,8,9,10,11,12] Five of these studies took place in European countries; in these studies, the reported prevalence ranged between 29.5 and 262.6 per 100,000 persons[7,8,9,10,11]. The aims of this study were: to use a nationwide database (1) to evaluate the prevalence and incidence of AS in South Korea, including temporal trends there of; and (2) to determine whether the prevalence and incidence of AS differ according to income status

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion