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. 2021 Nov;35(11):2270-2276.
doi: 10.1111/jdv.17485. Epub 2021 Jul 24.

Prevalence, incidence and presence of comorbidities in patients with prurigo and pruritus in Germany: A population-based claims data analysis

M Augustin  1 , C Garbe  1 , K Hagenström  1 , J Petersen  1 , M P Pereira  2 , S Ständer  2
Affiliations

Prevalence, incidence and presence of comorbidities in patients with prurigo and pruritus in Germany: A population-based claims data analysis

M Augustin et al. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2021 Nov.

Abstract

Background: There are currently no published population-based data on prurigo and pruritus epidemiology in Germany.

Objectives: We present the prevalence, incidence and comorbidity frequency of prurigo and pruritus in Germany.

Methods: This was a retrospective healthcare research study based on anonymized routine data from the German health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit. Evaluations were carried out for 2 006 003 adults who were insured as of 31 December 2010. Prurigo and pruritus diagnoses were based on International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, German Modification (ICD-10-GM) codes.

Results: Prevalence was determined to be 0.21% (adjusted for sex and age 0.19%) for prurigo and 2.21% (adjusted 2.14%) for pruritus in 2010. The adjusted rates extrapolated to the total German population in 2010 show that 130 685 adults would have received a prurigo diagnosis and 1 461 024 a diagnosis of pruritus. In 2011, incidence of new prurigo and pruritus cases was 0.13% (adjusted 0.12%, extrapolated 77 263 cases) and 1.51% (adjusted 1.46%, extrapolated 978 885), respectively. Adults with prurigo suffered most frequently from hypertension (35.16%), hyperlipidaemia (24.95%) and depression (21.97%); all were reported more frequently in patients with prurigo compared with the general population (P < 0.001). Similarly, adults with pruritus suffered most frequently from hypertension (31.28%), hyperlipidaemia (23.52%) and depression (18.91%) compared with patients without pruritus (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Our data show that prurigo is a relatively rare but significant disease and that pruritus is frequent and very variable in appearance, and both have a high comorbidity burden.

Keywords: epidemiology; itch; prurigo; pruritus.

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References

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