© 1987 British Society for Rheumatology
research-article |
MORTALITY FROM SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS IN ENGLAND AND WALES, 19741983
The Department of Community Medicine, United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's St Thomas's Hospitals, St Thomas's Campus, London SE1 9RT and the Departments of Epidemiology and Medicine, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, USA
Correspondence to:
Address correspondence to Dr. Hochberg at Professional Building, Suite 400, 5601 Loch Raven Boulevard, Baltimore, MD. 21205, USA.
Mortality rates from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in England and Wales were estimated from Office of Population Censuses and Surveys data from 1974 to 1983, by age and sex. Age-specific average annual mortality rates showed unimodal distributions for both sexes with maximal death rates in the 6574-year age groups. The overall age-adjusted mortality rate for females was about four times that in males, 3.94 versus 1.02 per million person-years, respectively. Examination of individual age-specific rates showed an early sharp rise in females producing female-to-male ratios which exceeded 10 in the 2534-year age group. Age-adjusted annual mortality rates in females significantly declined during the 10-year interval studied from 4.47 to 2.99 per million person-years (p = 0.0083). These patterns of mortality from SLE observed in England and Wales are comparable to those reported among Caucasians in the United States during a similar time period.
KEY WORDS: Epidemiology
* Dr. Hochberg was Visiting Senior Lecturer in the Department of Community Medicine when this study was conducted.