Epidemiology of Hyperhidrosis in Danish Blood Donors

Abstract

The risk factors and disease implications of hyper-hidrosis are unknown. The objectives of this retrospective cohort study were to estimate the prevalence of hyperhidrosis and to compare demographic, life-style, and socioeconomic parameters in blood donors with and without self-reported or hospital-diagnosed hyperhidrosis. The study included blood donors from the Danish Blood Donor Study for the period 2010-2019. Registry data were collected from Statistics Denmark. Overall, 2,794 of 30,808 blood donors (9.07%; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 8.75-9.40) had self- reported hyperhidrosis and 284 of 122,225 (0.23%; 95% CI 0.21-0.26) had hospital-diagnosed hyperhidrosis. Self-reported hyperhidrosis was associated with smoking (odds ratio (OR) 1.17; 95% CI 1.05-1.31), overweight (OR 1.72; 95% CI 1.58-1.87), "unemployed" (OR 1.60; 95% CI 1.24-2.08), "short education" (OR 0.76; 95% CI 0.64-0.90), and lower income (beta-coefficient -26,121; 95% CI -37,931, -14,311). Hospital-diagnosed hyperhidrosis did not differ from controls. Thus, self-reported hyperhidrosis was associated with potential hyperhidrosis risk factors (smoking, overweight) and disease implications (unemployment, low education level and income).

Keywords: hyperhidrosis; overweight; smoking; socioeconomic factors; cohort studies.

Fig. 1

Study flow diagram of inclusion and exclusion of blood donors. DBDS: Danish Blood Donor Study; HH: hyperhidrosis; ICD-10: International Classification of Disease-10.