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Epidemiology of urticaria in Spain
P Gaig1, M Olona, D Muñoz Lejarazu
1Allergy Unit, Hospital Universitari Joan XXIII, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
Background:
In spite of the frequency of chronic urticaria there are very few epidemiological studies of its prevalence and distribution.
Objective:
We wanted to approach the real prevalence of chronic urticaria in a population-based study and to depict demographic distribution and personal perception of the disease. We also wanted to describe the frequency of acute urticaria episodes in the population studied.
Methods:
We conducted a population-based study among adults in Spain. We questioned 5003 individuals after calculating a sample size for a maximum variability (conservative approach p=q=0.5).
Results:
We found a 0.6% (95% CI: 0.4-0.8) prevalence of chronic urticaria. The prevalence is significantly higher in women than in men with a OR=3.82 (95%CI 1.56-9.37). Chronic urticaria is a self-limited disease, yet in 8.7% of cases chronic urticaria lasts from one to 5 years and in 11.3%, for more than 5 years. The average age of onset is 40 years.
Conclusions:
We offer large epidemiology study data on the prevalence of chronic urticaria. The prevalence of chronic urticaria has not yet been defined in an adult population-based study. With this work we offer such data to describe the prevalence and features of this disease.
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