Mortality rate for people with lupus remains higher than U.S. rate overall

FINDINGSWhile the mortality rate in the United States have declined over the past four decades, UCLA researchers found that the mortality rate for people with lupus has not declined as much as it has for the population overall.The researchers found that among people with lupus, mortality rates are still higher for black people than for other ethnicities; rates for women are higher than those of men; and those in the South were higher than for other regions of the U.S. Mortality rates for people with lupus were affected by where they lived.BACKGROUNDLupus is a chronic disease in which the immune system attacks the body ’s tissues and organs. The disease causes a telltale rash on the face, and symptoms include fatigue, fever and joint pain. More than 16,000 new cases are reported each year, according to the Lupus Foundation of America.Although there is no cure for lupus, the 10-year survival rates improved dramatically from the 1950s, when they were only about 50  percent, to the 1980s, when they exceeded 90 percent. But the UCLA researchers sought a more comprehensive understanding of long-term trends in mortality for people with the disease.METHODThe researchers cross-referenced mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with population data from the U.S. Census Bureau from 1968 to 2013. They compared annual, age-standardized mortality rates between systemic lupus erythematous — the most common form of the disease — and all other causes. ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news