Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr 20;11(9):2289.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11092289.

Epidemiologic Trends of Thalassemia, 2006-2018: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

Jee-Soo Lee  1   2 , Tae-Min Rhee  3 , Kibum Jeon  4 , Yonggeun Cho  2 , Seung-Woo Lee  5 , Kyung-Do Han  5 , Moon-Woo Seong  1 , Sung-Sup Park  1 , Young Kyung Lee  2   6
Affiliations

Epidemiologic Trends of Thalassemia, 2006-2018: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

Jee-Soo Lee et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Thalassemia is the most common form of hereditary anemia. Here, we aimed to investigate the 13-year trend of the epidemiologic profiles and risk of comorbidities in thalassemia using a nationwide population-based registry in Korea. Diagnosis of thalassemia, the comorbidities and transfusion events in patients with thalassemia were identified in the Korean National Health Insurance database, which includes the entire population. The prevalence of thalassemia increased from 0.74/100,000 in 2006 to 2.76/100,000 in 2018. Notably, the incidence rate has nearly doubled in the last 2 years from 0.22/100,000 in 2016 to 0.41/100,000 in 2018. The annual transfusion rate gradually decreased from 34.7% in 2006 to 20.6% in 2018. Transfusion events in patients with thalassemia were significantly associated with the risk of comorbidities (diabetes: odds ratio [OR] = 3.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.59-5.22; hypertension: OR = 3.06, 95% CI = 2.35-4.00; dyslipidemia: OR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.22-2.43; atrial fibrillation: OR = 3.52, 95% CI = 1.69-7.32; myocardial infarction: OR = 3.02, 95% CI = 1.09-8.38; stroke: OR = 3.32, 95% CI = 2.05-5.36; congestive heart failure: OR = 2.83, 95% CI = 1.62-4.97; end-stage renal disease: OR = 3.25, 95% CI = 1.96-5.37). Early detection of comorbidities and timely intervention are required for the management of thalassemia.

Keywords: comorbidity; incidence; nationwide population-based study; prevalence; thalassemia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The (A) prevalence and (B) incidence of thalassemia in Korea, 2006–2018.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The (A) prevalence and (B) incidence of thalassemia in each age group.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Thalassemia prevalence and incidence by income quartile, where quartile 1 is the lowest of the income distribution and quartile 4 is the highest.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Blood transfusion in thalassemia. (A) Overall proportion of patients who received transfusions from 2006 to 2017. (B) Trend since 2006 of the percentage of patients who received a blood transfusion during study period.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Odds ratio of a transfusion-dependent status in thalassemia for comorbidities.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aydinok Y. Thalassemia. Hematology. 2012;17((Suppl. S1)):s28–s31. doi: 10.1179/102453312X13336169155295. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Goh L.P.W., Chong E.T.J., Lee P.-C. Prevalence of Alpha(α)-Thalassemia in Southeast Asia (2010–2020): A Meta-Analysis Involving 83,674 Subjects. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 2020;17:7354. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17207354. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sayani F.A., Kwiatkowski J.L. Increasing prevalence of thalassemia in America: Implications for primary care. Ann. Med. 2015;47:592–604. doi: 10.3109/07853890.2015.1091942. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lee S.-R., Choi E.-K., Jung J.-H., Han K.-D., Oh S., Lip G.Y.H. Lower risk of stroke after alcohol abstinence in patients with incident atrial fibrillation: A nationwide population-based cohort study. Eur. Heart J. 2021;42:4759–4768. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehab315. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Choi E.-K. Cardiovascular Research Using the Korean National Health Information Database. Korean Circ. J. 2020;50:754–772. doi: 10.4070/kcj.2020.0171. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources