Incidence and prevalence of systemic lupus erythematosus among Arab and Chaldean Americans in southeastern Michigan: the Michigan Lupus Epidemiology and Surveillance Program

OBJECTIVES: We assessed the burden of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) among Arab and Chaldean Americans residing in southeast Michigan.

METHODS: For those meeting SLE criteria from the Michigan Lupus Epidemiology and Surveillance Registry, we determined Arab or Chaldean ethnicity by links with demographic data from birth certificates and with a database of Arab and Chaldean names. We compared prevalence and incidence of SLE for Arab and Chaldean Americans with estimates for non-Arab and non-Chaldean American Whites and Blacks.

RESULTS: We classified 54 individuals with SLE as Arab and Chaldean Americans. The age-adjusted incidence and prevalence estimates for Arab and Chaldean Americans were 7.6 and 62.6 per 100 000, respectively. Arab and Chaldean Americans had a 2.1-fold excess SLE incidence compared with non-Arab and non-Chaldean American Whites. Arab and Chaldean American women had both significantly higher incidence rates (5.0-fold increase) and prevalence estimates (7.4-fold increase) than did Arab and Chaldean American men.

CONCLUSIONS: Recognizing that Arab and Chaldean Americans experience different disease burdens from Whites is a first step toward earlier diagnosis and designing targeted interventions. Better methods of assigning ethnicity would improve research in this population. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print March 19, 2015: e1-e6. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302423).