Article Text
PDF
Abstract
Background Few studies have reported the incidence of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) in well-defined populations worldwide, and none of them covered a period of time long-enough to analyze potential time trends in incidence rates. Whether pSS is associated with a higher mortality rate compared to the general population is also unclear from previously published studies.
Objectives To estimate the incidence and mortality rates of pSS among residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, and their evolution over time.
Methods All medical records of patients with a diagnosis or suspicion of SS in Olmsted County, MN, from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2015 were reviewed to identify incident cases of pSS (defined according to physician diagnosis). All patients with doubtful cases and all patients with an associated systemic autoimmune disease were excluded. These cases were combined with a previous 1976–2005 incident cohort from the same population (reference). Incidence rates were age and sex adjusted to the US white 2010 population. Survival rates were compared with the expected rates in the general population of Minnesota.
Results With 61 incident cases of pSS diagnosed in Olmsted County in 2006–2015, the total cohort included 172 patients with incident pSS in 1976–2015. Of the 172 patients, 151 (88%) were women and 161 (94%) were white, with a mean (SD) age at diagnosis of 58.3 (16.7) years. The average age- and sex- adjusted annual incidence for 2006–2015 was 5.9 per 100,000 population (95% CI 4.4–7.4), and overall incidence for the entire period was 5.8 (95% CI: 4.9–6.6) per 100,000. Incidence was 2 to 7 times higher in females compared to males in the different age classes (5.9 times higher on average), and increased progressively with age, culminating at 19.6 per 100,000 in females aged 65–74 years, with a slight decline thereafter to 15.9 per 100,000 among females aged 75 years and older. The incidence increased with calendar time over the 40-year period (p=0.005, figure). There was no apparent seasonality in the incidence of pSS, with similar number of cases diagnosed during all four seasons. There was no difference in mortality in the pSS cohort compared to expected (standardized mortality ratio 1.15, 95% CI 0.86–1.50).
Conclusions The average annual incidence of pSS in this population based-cohort was 5.8/100,000, with a progressive increase over the 40 years of the study. Overall survival of pSS patients was not different from the general population.
References
Nannini C et al. BMJ Open. 2013;3:e003569.
References
Disclosure of Interest None declared