Granuloma annulare more likely to affect white middle-aged women
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Granuloma annulare is more common among women and middle-aged individuals, but it remains a rare disease in the United States.
“Although several single-center studies have estimated that granuloma annulare may account for approximately 0.1% to 0.4% of new patients presenting to dermatology clinics, there is a lack of large-scale population-based studies estimating the prevalence and incidence of granuloma annulare,” John S. Barbieri, MD, MBA, of the department of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote.
Using data from the Optum Clinformatics Data Mart database, the retrospective cross-sectional study identified 11,608 patients with incident granuloma annulare and 17,862 with prevalent granuloma annulare. Female patients made up 74.8% and 75.8% of the two groups, respectively.
Overall annualized incidence of granuloma annulare was 0.04%, or 37.9 (95% CI, 36.9-38.9) per 100,000, with overall annualized prevalence of 0.06%, or 58.3 (95% CI, 57.1-59.5) per 100,000.
The overall female to male incidence ratio was 2.8:1 (P < .001), with a prevalence ratio of 3.0:1 (P < .001).
Incidence was highest in patients in their fifth decade at 58.6 (95% CI, 55.2-62.0) per 100,000 person-years. Prevalence was also highest in the fifth decade at 91.5 (95% CI, 87.3-95.8) per 100,000 person-years.
White individuals had an incident rate of 48.2 (95% CI, 46.8-49.7) compared with 21.3 (95% CI, 18.8-23.9) in Black individuals (P < .001). Prevalence was highest in white individuals at 72.7 (95% CI, 70.9-74.4) compared with Black individuals at 30.7 (95% CI, 27.6-33.7), Hispanic individuals at 33.6 (95% CI, 30.8-36.4) and Asian individuals at 20.5 (95% CI, 16.9-24.1) (P < .001).
“The findings of this study suggest that the prevalence of granuloma annulare in the community is approximately an order of magnitude less than what has been previously suggested in studies that have focused predominately only on patients presenting to dermatology clinics,” the authors wrote. “Granuloma annulare is a rare disease in the United States that is more common among women, middle-aged to older individuals and white individuals.”