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. 2018 Aug 28;19(1):158.
doi: 10.1186/s12931-018-0871-3.

Prevalence and incidence of sarcoidosis in Korea: a nationwide population-based study

Hee-Young Yoon  1 , Hyeong Min Kim  1 , Ye-Jee Kim  2 , Jin Woo Song  3
Affiliations

Prevalence and incidence of sarcoidosis in Korea: a nationwide population-based study

Hee-Young Yoon et al. Respir Res. .

Abstract

Background: The prevalence and incidence of sarcoidosis varies worldwide. We estimated the prevalence and incidence of sarcoidosis in Korea using nationwide claims data from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.

Methods: Cases of sarcoidosis were identified for any visit between 2007 to 2016 that listed the Korean Classification of Disease, 7th edition code of sarcoidosis and rare incurable disease exempted calculation code. A narrow case definition was used as follows: 1) ≥ two sarcoidosis-coded visits within 1 year of the first claim, 2) no claims for other diseases that could form granuloma.

Results: A total of 4791 patients (narrow, n = 2388) visited medical institutions for sarcoidosis during the study period; 2999 patients (narrow, n = 1696) were newly identified between 2009 and 2015. The sarcoidosis prevalence was 9.37 per 105 people (narrow, 4.69) and was highest between ages 60-69 years. The incidence rate was 0.85 per 105 population at risk (narrow, 0.48), with the highest incidence rate between ages 50-59 years. For incident cases (mean age: 48.5 year), the age distribution in whole population and females showed monophasic patterns peaking at aged 50-59 years, while males had biphasic incidence peak at aged 30-39 years and 60-69 years. The annual incidence rates showed increasing trends from 0.85 per 105 population at risk in 2009 to 0.97 per 105 population at risk in 2015.

Conclusions: In comparison with previous reports, the prevalence and incidence of sarcoidosis in Korea have increased and middle-aged women showed the highest risk.

Keywords: Age distribution; Epidemiology; Population dynamics; Sarcoidosis; Sex distribution.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Asan Medical Center (2017–0627).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Identification of sarcoidosis cases from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service database. *Index date: the date of the earliest claim of sarcoidosis
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The prevalence of sarcoidosis stratified by age and sex. a. Prevalence data of the whole group from 2007 to 2016. b. Prevalence according to the narrow definition from 2007 to 2015. Data are presented as the mean ± 95% confidence interval
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The incidence of sarcoidosis stratified by age and sex. a. Incidence data of the whole group from 2009 to 2015. b. Incidence rate by the narrow definition from 2009 to 2015. Data are presented as the mean ± 95% confidence interval
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Age- and sex- standardized annual sarcoidosis incidence. a. Incidence data of the whole group from 2009 to 2015. b. Incidence rate according to the narrow definition from 2009 to 2015. Data are presented as the mean ± 95% confidence interval
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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