J Korean Med Sci.  2016 Sep;31(9):1445-1449. 10.3346/jkms.2016.31.9.1445.

Epidemiologic Study on Kawasaki Disease in Korea, 2007-2014: Based on Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service Claims

• Ha S
• Seo GH
• Kim KY
• Kim DS

• KMID: 2468278
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2016.31.9.1445

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the actual epidemiologic features of Kawasaki disease (KD) in Korea using the data from Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) claims from 2007 to 2014. We investigated HIRA claims of patients who had KD (International Classification of Diseases-10, M30.3) as a major diagnosis and were given intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) from 2007 to 2014. A total of 39,082 patients were reported during the period. The male-to-female ratio was 1.42 and the median age was 28 months. The incidence rates were 168.3 per 100,000 population aged 0 to 4 years in 2007, 159.1 in 2008, 167.3 in 2009, 190.4 in 2010, 188.2 in 2011, 190.2 in 2012, 210.4 in 2013 and 217.2 in 2014. These rates were much higher than those in the previous studies in Korea. KD occurred more often in early summer (May, June and July) and winter (December and January). The annual incidence rate of KD had been increasing every year, reaching 217.2 per 100,000 population aged 0 to 4 years in 2014. It is the second highest incidence rate of KD in the world after Japan.

Keyword

Kawasaki Disease; Epidemiology; Annual Incidence; Korea

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Age Factors
Child
Child, Preschool
Databases, Factual
Female
Humans
Incidence
Infant
Insurance Claim Reporting
Male
Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome/*epidemiology
Republic of Korea/epidemiology
Sex Factors

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Total number of patients with KD by calendar year, 2007-2014. The sum of patients with KD during the study period was 39,082 (4,477 in 2007, 4,208 in 2008, 4,364 in 2009, 4,970 in 2010, 4,869 in 2011, 5,013 in 2012, 5,519 in 2013 and 5,662 in 2014). There were 22,907 male and 16,175 female patients.

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  Fig. 2 Age-specific incidence rate of KD. The age-specific incidence rate was the highest in children under 1 year of age, and gradually decreased with age, becoming below 100.0 per 100,000 population after 5 years.

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  Fig. 3 Number of patients with KD by month, 2007-2014. KD occurred more often in early summer and winter. The incidence of KD was high in December (9.95% of total patients with KD) and July (9.08%), and was low in October (7.06%) and February (7.13%).

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  Fig. 4 Number of patients with KD by month in every year, 2007-2014. We observed similar seasonal variations every year. The incidence of KD was the lowest in September 2007 and the highest in December 2014 during the period.

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