The Prevalence and Features of Korean Gout Patients Using the National Health Insurance Corporation Database.
- Author:
Chan Hee LEE
1
;
Na Young SUNG
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Gout; Prevalence; Korean; National Health Insurance Corporation database
- MeSH: Clinical Coding; Databases, Factual; Female; Gout; Humans; Male; National Health Programs; Prevalence
- From:Journal of Rheumatic Diseases 2011;18(2):94-100
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
- Abstract: OBJECTIVE: We wanted to evaluate the prevalence of gout and its features in Korean people using the National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) database. METHODS: Using the NHIC database from 2001 to 2008, we selected the gout patients who were coded as having gout as a main diagnosis. From the total number of gout patients, we evaluated the prevalence of gout and its features. RESULTS: The prevalence of gout prevalence was 0.171% in 2001 and 0.397% in 2008, and there was a 2.317 fold increased during over the 7 years. In 2008, the percentage of fifth and sixth decade patients was 48.5% and that of the male patients were 89.8% of the total gout patients. The increasing rate of the prevalence of gout during the same period was also higher in males (the male vs. female ratio was 5.3:1 in 2001 and 8.8:1 in 2008). The gout prevalence increased year by year to the eighth decade, and the peak prevalence age group was the ninth decade in 2001, the eighth decade in 2002-2005 and the seventh decade in 2006-2008. The prevalence ratio of 2008 to 2001 was higher for the males and the younger age group; that of third decade for males was 9.87 , which was over the 10 times higher compared to that of the ninth decade (9.87 vs. 0.89, respectively). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of gout in 2008 using the NHIC database was 0.397%, so the prevalence of gout increased 2.317 fold over the 7 years, and nearly 90% of the gout patients were male. The increasing rate of gout prevalence was higher in the males and the younger age group.
