Introduction: Paget's disease (PDB) is a focal disorder of bone remodeling that occurs commonly in older people with decreasing prevalence reported in European countries. This disease is most often asymptomatic, but it can cause a variety of medical complications resulting in considerable morbidity and reduced quality of life. There is little information regarding the epidemiology of PDB in Poland. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first large epidemiological analysis of this disease in Poland.
Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze factors that may be related to the PDB epidemiology among hospitalized patients in Poland.
Material and methods: The analysis was conducted on the basis of population-based administrative data, taken from a Polish hospital morbidity study carried out by the National Institute of Public Health between January 2008 - December 2014.
Results: Analyzed data covered 662 hospitalization records. The final study sample comprised 94 (41.8%) male and 131 (58.2%) female patients with first-time hospitalizations for PDB, with a significant predominance of females (P<0.02), and the predominance of patients living in urban (73%) than in rural areas (27%), P<0.001. The average age of the sample was 56.8 years (CI: 54.3-59.3; SD 18.8; range 1-93 years). The number of PDB cases hospitalized in Poland significantly decreased during the analyzed period of time.
Conclusions: PDB is a rare disease with decreasing trends observed among hospitalized patients in Poland. The study results may suggest the existence of environmental risk factors for the development of PDB.
Keywords: Paget’s disease of bone; hospitalization; risk factors; rural population; urban population.