Hospitalizations can seem hard to avoid when battling lupus, co-morbid conditions, infection, and more.
People with lupus often experience many symptoms that seem to come and go. It can be difficult to know when to go to the hospital and when to wait for a a visit with your rheumatologist. Despite this difficulty, data on hospitalizations is being used in new ways to better understand lupus.
One way that this data is being used is to try and understand the prevalence of lupus. Prior research relied on telephone surveys and extrapolations of studies conducted in small geographic areas. A study published in 2007 looked at the rate of hospitalizations in both California and Pennsylvania and accounted for SLE by looking at the hospital discharge diagnosis.
The researchers concluded that between 108 to 150 people have lupus for ever 100,000 people in the United States. And, “roughly 1.8 to 2.5 per 1,000 women.” The researchers note that this analysis was only conducted on people over 18 years old, and that including children would lower these totals.
Part of the math that enabled this estimate was the rate of annual hospitalizations for people with lupus in both California and Pennsylvania. According to the study, 28% and 22%, respectively for the states, of people with SLE are hospitalized every year. The researchers arrived at these numbers by reviewing hospital records (in California) and from patient self-reports (in Pennsylvania).