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. 2025 Mar 28;23(1):33.
doi: 10.1186/s12969-025-01065-8.

Epidemiology and comorbidity of juvenile idiopathic arthritis in Poland- a nationwide study

Zbigniew Żuber  1 , Krzysztof Podwójcic  2 , Mateusz Szeląg  2 , Magdalena Krajewska-Włodarczyk  3 , Krzysztof Batko  4 , Michał Orleański  2 , Jakub Sowiński  2 , Maria Świderek  2 , Agata Śmiglewska  2 , Michał Maluchnik  5 , Marek Brzosko  6 , Brygida Kwiatkowska  7 , Marcin Stajszczyk  8 , Bogdan Batko  9
Affiliations

Epidemiology and comorbidity of juvenile idiopathic arthritis in Poland- a nationwide study

Zbigniew Żuber et al. Pediatr Rheumatol Online J. .

Abstract

Background: Diagnostic pathways for patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) have gradually improved over time. Provider practice has also shifted towards goal-oriented treatment with disease-modifying drugs (DMARDs) that together may have changed the epidemiologic landscape of JIA.

Methods: Public healthcare utilization records from the National Health Fund (NHF) were screened between 2010 and 2022. For individuals aged < 16 years, we utilized a narrow JIA case definition combining repeat ICD-10 encoding with DMARDs prescription based on ATC codes.

Results: In 2022, we identified 1,625 incident and 29,758 prevalent JIA cases (< 16 years), which corresponds to incidence (IRs) and prevalence rates of 4.30 and 78.80 per 100,000 persons of the general population. For the pediatric population, annual IRs for JIA (< 16 years) ranged between 24.0 (95% CI 22.8, 25.2) and 38.7 (95% CI 37.2-40.3) per 100,000. Greater susceptibility among females was also consistently observed with the annual IR ratio ranging between 1.16 and 1.53. The most common concurrent disorders based on medical care services were allergic rhinitis (N = 5,200, 17.5%), bronchial asthma (N = 3,661, 12.3%) and chronic tonsillitis/pharyngitis (N = 3641, 12.2%). Analysis of 214,285 outpatient care visits revealed a median (IQR, range) annual healthcare cost of 37.8€ (35.8-47.4€, 30.3-86.1€) per JIA patient.

Conclusions: This comprehensive, nationwide study provides a contemporary estimate of JIA burden in Poland. Our findings indicate that both the occurrence of new cases and overall burden of JIA in the past ten years align with the lower end of projected figures for our geographical area, especially when compared with Scandinavian nations.

Keywords: Disease occurrence; Epidemiology; Incidence; Inflammatory arthritis; Juvenile idiopathic arthritis; Morbidity; Prevalence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Under local regulations, ethical approval is not required due to the retrospective and secondary nature of the data. Data were also anonymized prior to analysis with subgroup size > 5 cases. This analysis relies solely on data obtained from the National Health Fund electronic databases. Obtaining institutional ethical approval was not required. Data utilized for this analysis was fully anonymized, which precludes the ability to reliably identify individuals. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: none to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
JIA prevalence rate (PR) with Poisson-based 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) for each specific childhood age group over time. Notes: Epidemiologic estimates are calculated with the population at risk as the number of individuals in each specific age group
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
JIA incidence rate (IR) with Poisson-based 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) within the pediatric population over time. Notes: Epidemiologic estimates are calculated with the population at risk as the number of individuals with JIA < 16 years within the childhood population below 16 years of age
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Temporal changes in JIA incidence rate (IR) and prevalence rate (PR) across pooled age groups. Notes: Epidemiologic estimates are calculated with the population at risk as the number of individuals in each specific age range
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Gender specific changes in the incidence of JIA over time. Notes: Epidemiologic estimates are calculated with the population at risk as the number of individuals in each specific age range
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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