Autoimmunity Leading Cause of Death Among Women

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Autoimmunity Named a Leading Cause of Death Among Women

Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 13:43:09 EDT

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Autoimmunity Named a Leading Cause of Death Among Women in New Study; Child

Death Rates Cited

DETROIT, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Autoimmune diseases constitute one of the 10 leading causes of all deaths among U.S. women age 65 and younger, according to a new study published this month by researchers from the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center's School of Medicine.

The study, published in the September 2000 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, is the first to show mortality rates from autoimmune diseases among women of various age groups. Apart from accidents, homicides and suicides, the study shows that autoimmune diseases are:

-- the seventh leading cause of death by disease among females ages one to 14

-- the fifth leading cause of death by disease among females ages 15 to 44

-- the seventh leading cause of death by disease among females ages 45 to 65

"We set out to tally all deaths from autoimmune diseases across the U.S. [for another research project] and in doing so were surprised by a much larger count than we'd expected. This surprise ultimately led us to identify autoimmune diseases as a leading cause of death, particularly among young and middle-aged women," said Dr. Walsh, one of the study's authors from the University of Connecticut Health Center.

One of the reasons autoimmune diseases are overlooked as a leading cause of death, according to the researchers, is because the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, which is used to develop "The List of 72 Selected Causes of Death," does not characterize diseases as being autoimmune, thus systematically excluding them from the mortality list.

"Until now, autoimmune diseases and their affect on the mortality of women has been largely unrecognized which makes this study groundbreaking," said Virginia Ladd, executive director, American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA). "And, it's clear that as the recognition of autoimmunity as a category of disease grows, we are able to see more and more the enormous impact these diseases have on the lives of millions of women in particular." This new study, an outgrowth of a 1997 epidemiological study conducted by the s Hopkins University School of Public Health and funded by AARDA, compared the frequency of death from 24 autoimmune diseases with counts for the "official" 10 leading causes of death identified in 1995 by the National Center for Health Statistics.

It also comes several days after s Hopkins University issued a report calling for a nationwide health tracking network to monitor chronic disorders and exposure to environmental contaminants, including autoimmune diseases. The tracking network would allow public health officials to identify problem areas and develop strategies to solve them.

"This news also sends a strong message to Congress that it is time to pay attention to autoimmunity as a category of disease that needs further funding for research," said Ladd, who added that there is pending legislation in the Senate calling for the creation of an Office of Autoimmunity at the National Institutes of Health.

According to AARDA, approximately 50 million Americans, 20 percent of the population or one in five people suffer from some 80 autoimmune diseases. Of these, the majority are women with perhaps 30 million affected. Autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, juvenile diabetes, scleroderma and chronic active hepatitis are caused by immunity against one's own body. It is the process whereby the immune system mistakenly recognizes the body's own proteins as foreign invaders and produces antibodies that attack healthy cells and tissues, causing various diseases.

AARDA is the nation's only organization dedicated bringing a national focus to autoimmunity as a category of disease and a major women's health issue, and promoting a collaborative research effort in order to find better treatments and a cure for all autoimmune diseases.

For more information, please visit AARDA's website at http://www.aarda.org or call 1-888-856-9433.

SOURCE American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association

CO: American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association

ST: Michigan

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