TOPLINE

Vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS) affected approximately 1.4 per 1000 US women, with prevalence increasing steadily with age and peaking at 3 per 1000 among women aged 70 years or older. White women, particularly those in older age groups, had the highest disease rates.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 740,006 women with at least one outpatient visit and at least 1 year of prior healthcare data from the Explorys database (Merative) between 2017 and 2019.
• The median age was 53 years; 78.8% were White and 12.8% were Black patients.
• Study outcomes were crude and standardized prevalence rates of VLS for the overall population and for subgroups by age, race, and combined age and race categories, with standardization based on 2020 US Census population estimates for females.

TAKEAWAY

• Overall, 1197 cases of VLS were identified. The crude prevalence of VLS was 0.16% and the standardized prevalence was 0.14%.
• Prevalence increased progressively across age groups: 0.02% for 18-29 years, 0.05% for 30-39 years, 0.09% for 40-49 years, 0.15% for 50-59 years, 0.28% for 60-69 years, and 0.30% for ages 70 years or older.
• White female patients had the highest crude prevalence at 0.20%, compared with 0.08% in Asian women and 0.07% in Black women.
• Among White women, those aged 60-69 years had a prevalence of 0.33%, and those aged 70 years or older had a prevalence of 0.35%, representing the highest rates observed across all demographic subgroups.

IN PRACTICE

"Nearly 200,000 women in the US may have VLS, a potentially debilitating disease with considerable life impact," the authors wrote. "Quantification of disease burden overall and by subgroups may support early recognition and symptom management as well as mitigation of longer-term risks."

SOURCE

The study was led by Pooja R. Shah, MD, Department of Dermatology, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine, Hofstra/Northwell, New Hyde Park, New York. It was published online on August 26 in JAMA Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS

The study relied on administrative diagnosis codes, which could have resulted in misclassification. Cases diagnosed outside the Explorys network could not be captured, potentially underestimating prevalence, and disease severity could not be determined.

DISCLOSURES

The study funding source was not disclosed. Two authors reported receiving personal fees from multiple pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, Almirall, Bluefin Biomedicine, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Incyte, among others. Additional author disclosures are reported in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.