Incidence of pediatric rheumatic diseases in a regional population in Austria

OBJECTIVE: To establish a population based disease registry for pediatric rheumatology in a defined population of Austria; to describe the demographic and diagnostic classification of children referred to pediatric rheumatology clinics; and to estimate the incidence of pediatric rheumatic diseases i...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of rheumatology Vol. 28; no. 9; pp. 2116 - 2119
Main Authors:	HUEMER, Christian, HUEMER, Martina, DORNER, Thomas, FALGER, Jutta, SCHACHERL, Helga, BERNECKER, Monika, ARTACKER, Gottfried, PILZ, Ingrid
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Toronto, ON The Journal of Rheumatology 01-09-2001 Journal of Rheumatology Publishing
Subjects:	Adolescent Age Distribution Age of Onset Austria - epidemiology Biological and medical sciences Child Child, Preschool Confidence Intervals Diseases of the osteoarticular system Female Humans Incidence Medical sciences Miscellaneous. Osteoarticular involvement in other diseases Prospective Studies Registries Rheumatic Diseases - diagnosis Rheumatic Diseases - epidemiology Risk Factors Severity of Illness Index Sex Distribution Austria Europe Human Immunopathology Connective tissue disease Skin disease Diseases of the osteoarticular system Autoimmune disease Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis Inflammatory joint disease Epidemiology Incidence Spondylarthropathy Symptomatology Chronic Follow up study Register Systemic disease Classification Lupus erythematosus Diagnosis Disseminated Child Public health Data gathering
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	OBJECTIVE: To establish a population based disease registry for pediatric rheumatology in a defined population of Austria; to describe the demographic and diagnostic classification of children referred to pediatric rheumatology clinics; and to estimate the incidence of pediatric rheumatic diseases in Eastern Austria. METHODS: For 2 years (1997-98) all pediatric rheumatology centers in the area contributed data on all new cases to a prospective multicenter patient registry. Diagnostic criteria defined the rheumatic disease cases, determined by a pediatric rheumatologist, and record linkage was carried out to avoid duplication of subjects. RESULTS: Rheumatic conditions were diagnosed in 107 subjects. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) was the most frequently encountered rheumatic condition (49.5%), followed by spondyloarthropathy (SpA, 33.6%) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, 5.6%). The mean annual incidence of JRA, SpA, and SLE among children referred to pediatric rheumatology centers was 4.28, 2.9, and 0.48 per 100,000 children at risk, respectively. CONCLUSION: Establishment of a population based disease registry led to collection of descriptive epidemiologic data on a defined regional cohort of children with rare disorders. Our registry will provide data on pediatric rheumatic diseases in a European population and will allow more accurate comparisons between populations for future research. Our data also indicate that more resources should be designated for the care of pediatric rheumatic diseases in view of the relatively high incidences of these diseases.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0315-162X 1499-2752