The increasing hospital disease burden of haemochromatosis in England

Hereditary haemochromatosis is a preventable cause of liver disease with an increasing disease burden.

To investigate time trends for hospital admission ascribed to haemochromatosis in England during the period from 1989/1990 to 2002/2003 and mortality from 1979 to 2005.

Hospital admission data, relating to both in-patients and day-cases, were obtained from the Hospital Episodes Statistics service. Mortality rates for England and Wales were provided by the Office for National Statistics.

Haemochromatosis is an uncommon cause for hospital admission. Age-standardized in-patient admission rates increased over the study period by 269% in men and by 290% in women: (from 0.64 to 2.36 and from 0.21 to 0.81 per year per 100 000). The increase in age-standardized day-case admission rates was even higher (men: from 2.78 to 34.9 per year per 100 000, 1155%; women: from 0.58 to 11.67 per year per 100 000, 1924%). Haemochromatosis was recorded as an uncommon cause of death.

Hospital in-patient and day case admissions for haemochromatosis increased markedly over the study period while mortality remained low. Both admission rates and mortality were higher in men than in women. The increase in admission rate may reflect improved recognition and diagnosis of iron overload disorders following identification of the HFE gene.