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Autoimmune disorders such as multiple
sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis,
and type 1 diabetes are among
the leading causes of death among American women under age 65, according
to a new study.
However, the significance of autoimmune diseases
in mortality rates has gone unrecognized since they are not classified
in the same way as other conditions such as heart disease or cancer. Many
autoimmune disorders are not in the list, prepared by the National Center
for Health Statistics, that physicians use when recording cause of death.
Researchers examined national mortality data for
1995 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), looking
for mention of 24 different autoimmune disorders, and found that, when
grouped together, these disorders accounted for a very large portion of
the deaths, putting it among the top 10 causes of death.
Another reason that these diseases do not show up
as a cause of death is that many doctors do not list chronic health conditions
as the direct cause of death when completing death certificates.
Previous research has found that about 5% of American
women have an autoimmune disorder.
American Journal of Public
Health September, 2000;90:1463-1466
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