Trend of Status Epilepticus Statistics in Korea: An Epidemiologic Study Based on National Health Insurance Database

ABSTRACT

Background@#Status epilepticus is a severe neurologic emergency comprising significant morbidity and mortality. This study investigated the epidemiologic features of status epilepticus in Korea from 2010 to 2019. @*Methods@#We used the Healthcare Bigdata Hub of the Korea National Health Insurance Database to identify records with principal diagnostic codes for status epilepticus (G41) using the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems from January 2010 to December 2019. This database only included patients with health insurance and not those with medical aid. The annual number of patients, costs, and regional differences were evaluated. The patients hospitalized under the principal diagnostic code for status epilepticus were considered as incident cases. @*Results@#The total number of patients with a diagnosis of status epilepticus increased annually from 3,110 in 2010 to 5,840 in 2019 at a compound annual growth rate of 7.3%. The incidence of status epilepticus per 100,000 population increased steadily from 2.21 in 2010 to 5.33 in 2019. Health care expenditures showed continued growth at a faster rate of 18.4%. When categorized by age groups, the growth rate was markedly higher in age groups >60 years. @*Conclusions@#In Korea, the incidence and cost of status epilepticus have increased from 2010 to 2019. Considering a possible underestimation of the incidence owing to data characteristics, the real incidence of status epilepticus may be higher. This trend in the incidence of status epilepticus can be mostly attributed to the increase of status epilepticus in the older population.