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. 2014 Dec;29(12):1706-10.
doi: 10.3346/jkms.2014.29.12.1706. Epub 2014 Nov 21.

Population-based study of the epidemiology of herpes zoster in Korea

You Jeong Kim  1 , Chang Nam Lee  1 , Chi-Yeon Lim  2 , Woo Seok Jeon  3 , Young Min Park  3
Affiliations

Population-based study of the epidemiology of herpes zoster in Korea

You Jeong Kim et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2014 Dec.

Abstract

General epidemiological data regarding herpes zoster (HZ) are necessary for treatment and prevention of this disease. In addition, epidemiological data can play an important role in evaluating the efficacy and impact of vaccination. Though several epidemiological studies of HZ in Korea have been conducted, they usually depend on hospital-based data and may not be representative of HZ characteristics all over Korea. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence and other epidemiological features of HZ in the general Korean population. We used population-based medical records from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, which includes 50,908,646 medical insurance subscribers, to calculate the incidence of HZ. Also, we analyzed an age-stratified random sample of 1,375,842 individuals to study descriptive epidemiologic characteristics of HZ in Korea in 2011. We observed that the incidence of HZ was 10.4 per 1,000 person-years and was strongly correlated with age. Sex had a major influence on HZ incidence; overall, there were 12.6 cases per 1,000 person years in women and 8.3 cases per 1,000 person years in men. There was no difference in incidence according to the locality and season.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Herpes zoster; Korea; Population-Based Study.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Age-adjusted incidence of herpes zoster according to sex.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number of cases and relative incidence of herpes zoster by province. Relative incidence was calculated based on the national population and house census undertaken in 2011.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number of patients herpes zoster. (A) Monthly occurrence. (B) Seasonal occurrence.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Usage of medical institutions according to the age.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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