Abstract
Objective The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prevalence and incidence of juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus ( JSLE) in Korea.
Methods The data were collected from the National Health Insurance Claims Database of Korea. JSLE was identified using the diagnostic code M32 from the Korean Standard Classification of Diseases. Patients between 5 and 18 years old, who had at least 1 claim for JSLE from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2017, as final diagnosis, were analyzed in the study. For prevalent cases, patients who used, at least 1 time, any type of medical services with a diagnostic code of M32 were selected. For incident cases, patients who did not use medical services with the M32 code 1 year prior and who were newly registered in 2017 were defined. Change-point analysis was used to find the age at which changes in prevalence and incidence occurred.
Results The prevalence of JSLE was 6.92 per 100,000 persons and the incidence of JSLE was 2.76 per 100,000 person-years in patients between 5 and 18 years old. The prevalence and incidence of JSLE were higher in females than in males. According to the change-point analysis, we found that the incidence and prevalence of female patients increased rapidly at the ages of 14 and 15 years, respectively.
Conclusion This Korean population-based epidemiological study of JSLE showed similar epidemiologic profiles to Asian population in other studies. The distribution of age, ethnicity, and pubertal status are important factors that influence population estimates of JSLE incidence and prevalence.
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