Epidemiology

The incidence of organising pneumonia (OP) is somewhat uncertain and estimates are commonly drawn from registries which may result in an overestimate of disease incidence but is between 0.5 to 1.5 per 100,000.[31][32] The incidence of OP is estimated at 1.97 per 100,000 in Iceland and in the rest of the world ranges from 0.2 to 1.45 per 100,000 or is thought to be approximately 5% of interstitial lung disease patients noted in these registries.[31] The fact that the data is sourced from registries may result in some inaccuracy. The incidence does not differ significantly worldwide.[33] OP occurs equally among men and women, and is not related to smoking. In the Iceland dataset, cryptogenic OP had an incidence of 1.1 per 100,000 while secondary OP had an incidence of 0.87 per 100,000.[31] A similar trend is reflected in an Italian study.[34] In other studies, however, the incidence of secondary OP was as high as 87% of the total number of patients presenting with OP.[35] It is noteworthy that in a Chinese study, all patients had follow up by phone calls for 4 years after inclusion in study, and 4% of those originally classified as cryptogenic OP had reclassification as secondary OP.[36]

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