Epidemiology of Lupus

The epidemiology of lupus is obscure and hard to track because this disease is often diagnosed to late or not diagnosed at all.  The systems of lupus mimic other diseases therefore it is hard to pinpoint exactly if a patient has lupus or not. Lupus is an autoimmune disease with a wide range of clinical manifestations such as: rashes, photo sensitivity, kidney problems, arthritis, seizures, psychosis, and blood cell abnormalities.  Lupus may also present itself with other autoimmune diseases and not get recorded as the patient having lupus on their record. The prevalence estimates span over a wide range due to this inconsistency of recording. “The range is as high as 161,000 with definite lupus in 2005 and 322,000 with definite or probable lupus” (CDC.gov). 

Congress has recently been able to fund two population based Lupus registries with the purpose of generating better prevalence estimates for Caucasian and African Americans. One of these registries is set up in Michigan and the other is in Georgia focusing on the two races stated above. There are also two newer registries in California and New York City and are set up to predict estimates for Hispanics and Asians. This registries will give us a better idea about the spread of lupus and possibly give us a better idea as to what populations are most affected by this disease. We may also be able to look at or track the genetic component of this disease as well.

The number of hospitalizations have increased and this increase was recorded in 1998 through 2000 with about 60,000 a year to about a 100,000 a year. The mortality rates for lupus were also tracked from 1979 to 1998 and the number increase from 879 to 1406 with women being five times higher than men and African Americans three times higher than Caucasians (CDC.gov). Why this increase in the number of hospitalization and mortality rates from lupus is unknown, but we hope that the registries that are currently collecting data will be able to map out the increase in cases and come up with a conclusion as to why this autoimmune disease has become more prevalent in our society.