Mortality Risk Among Hospitalized Patients With SLE Evaluated in New Study

In-hospital mortality rates for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have improved significantly since 2006, according to a new study.

“In the largest study of in‐hospital SLE mortality published to date, we found significant improvements in mortality for US hospitalized patients with SLE from 2006 until 2008, after which mortality stabilized at a level similar to that of the [general hospitalizes population] GHP,” the researchers wrote.

The researchers used the National (Nationwide) Inpatient Sample to calculate estimates for all‐cause mortality among adults discharged from hospitals in the United States between 2006 and 2016. Using Poisson regression models, the team utilized demographics, socioeconomic factors, comorbidity scores, hospital region, and SLE diagnosis to estimate the risk of death while in the hospital among all patients.

Of the 340,467,049 hospitalizations included in the analysis, 1,903,279 patients were discharged with a diagnosis of SLE. The risk of death while hospitalized had decreased among patients with SLE from 2.2% in 2006 to 1.5% in 2016, with the entire decrease in SLE mortality taking place between 2006 and 2008. After 2008, in-hospital mortality among patients with SLE had stabilized, becoming statistically similar to that of the GHP.

However, black and Hispanic patients and patients of Asian/Pacific Islander descent with SLE experienced higher rates of in-hospital mortality compared with hospitalizations for patients of the same race or ethnicity without SLE, and of white patients with SLE.

“Our results also demonstrate a persistently high mortality burden among US blacks and Hispanics with SLE, and contribute new data revealing high mortality among Asian/Pacific Islanders with SLE,” the researchers concluded.

—Rebecca Mashaw

Reference:

Anastasiou C, Trupin L, Glidden DV, et al. Mortality among hospitalized individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus in the United States between 2006 and 2016. Arthritis Care Res. Published online June 17, 2020.  https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.24356