Hospitalization Among Patients with Sarcoidosis: A Population-Based Cohort Study 1987–2015

Purpose There is little information about healthcare utilization for sarcoidosis. This study examined need for hospitalization as a measure of healthcare burden in this disease. Methods A cohort of Olmsted County, Minnesota residents diagnosed with sarcoidosis between January 1, 1976 and December 31, 2013 was identified using the resources of the Rochester Epidemiology Project. Diagnosis was made based on individual medical record review. For each sarcoidosis subject, one sex- and age-matched comparator without sarcoidosis was randomly selected from the same population. Data on hospitalizations were retrieved electronically from billing data of the Mayo Clinic, the Olmsted Medical Center, and their affiliated hospitals. These data were available from 1987 to 2015. Subjects who died or emigrated from Olmsted County prior to 1987 were excluded. Results 332 incident cases of sarcoidosis and 342 comparators were included. Hospitalization rates were significantly higher among patients with sarcoidosis than comparators [rate ratio (RR) 1.37; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.24–1.52]. Analysis based on sex revealed a significantly increased rate among females (RR 1.60; 95% CI 1.40–1.82) but not among males (RR 1.06; 95% CI 0.91–1.25). The overall age- and sex-adjusted rates of hospitalization were stable from 1987 to 2015 for both cases and comparators. The average length of stay was similar (4.6 and 4.4 days for sarcoidosis and non-sarcoidosis hospitalizations, respectively, p = 0.87). Conclusion In this population, patients with sarcoidosis had a significantly higher rate of hospitalization than patients without sarcoidosis, driven by higher rates in females.