Estimating Baseline Incidence of Conditions Potentially Associated with Vaccine Adverse Events: a Call for Surveillance System Using the Korean National Health Insurance Claims Data.

BACKGROUND: Vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are raising concerns about vaccine safety, particularly in the context of large-scale immunization. To address public concerns, we measured the baseline incidence rates of major conditions potentially related to vaccine-related adverse events (VAEs). We aimed to provide a basis for evaluating VAEs and verifying causality. METHODS: Conditions of interest were selected from the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System Table of Reportable Events and a recent report from a European consortium on vaccine surveillance. We used the National Health Insurance Service database in Korea to identify the monthly numbers of cases with these conditions. Data from January 2006 to June 2020 were included. Prediction models were constructed from the observed incidences using an autoregressive integrated moving average. We predicted the incidences of the conditions and their respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for January through December 2021. In addition, subgroup analysis for the expected vaccination population was conducted. RESULTS: Mean values (95% CIs) of the predicted monthly incidence of vasovagal syncope, anaphylaxis, brachial neuritis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, Bell's palsy, Guillain-Barré syndrome, encephalopathy, optic neuritis, transverse myelitis, immune thrombocytopenic purpura, and systemic lupus erythematosus in 2021 were 23.89 (19.81-27.98), 4.72 (3.83-5.61), 57.62 (51.37-63.88), 0.03 (0.01-0.04), 8.58 (7.90-9.26), 0.26 (0.18-0.34), 2.13 (1.42-2.83), 1.65 (1.17-2.13), 0.19 (0.14-0.25), 0.75 (0.61-0.90), and 3.40 (2.79-4.01) cases per 100,000 respectively. The majority of the conditions showed an increasing trend with seasonal variations in their incidences. CONCLUSION: We measured the incidence of a total of 11 conditions that could potentially be associated with VAEs to predict the monthly incidence in 2021. In Korea, conditions that could potentially be related to VAEs occur on a regular basis, and an increasing trend is observed with seasonality.

Burden of dental caries and periodontal disease in South Korea: An analysis using the national health insurance claims database.

OBJECTIVES: It is essential to measure and monitor the burden of dental caries and periodontal disease (PD) in Korea's ageing population due to their potential impact on morbidity, quality of life and economic condition. This study aimed to quantify the size of burden of dental caries and PD using the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and their trends. METHODS: DALYs were estimated using incidence-based approaches to calculate the burden of dental caries and PD from 2013 to 2015 in Korea. Incidence and prevalence were estimated using medical claim data by specific algorithms. Additionally, sensitivity analysis was conducted to investigate possible weakness in the study methodology. To conduct the sensitivity analysis, we modified the algorithms to estimate prevalence and incidence. RESULTS: The burden of dental caries and PD increased by 39.2% and 57.0%, respectively, between 2013 and 2015. In 2015, dental caries and PD ranked 11th and 25th, respectively, in terms of the leading causes of DALYs. The burden of dental caries was the most substantial in children aged 0-9 years, while that of PD was the most substantial among those in their ages of 40 and 50 (per 100 000 population). After sensitivity analysis with a modified disease algorithm, the magnitude of disease burden changed considerably. CONCLUSIONS: Dental caries and PD constitute substantial burdens in South Korea. Despite the known limitations, medical claims data can be a powerful resource for conducting timely and cost-effective measurements of oral health. In countries, where universal dental schemes are available, there is need to estimate the burden of oral disease using claims data, for methodical advances in the research field.