Mortality trends in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Europe between 2013 and 2018

Introduction Previous research has suggested that the incidence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is increasing in the United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere. The aim of this study is to provide contemporary estimates of IPF mortality rates across 24 European Countries from 2013 to 2018, using death certificates data from the European Statistics Institution (EUROSTAT) database. Methods We extracted country data for IPF (International Classification of Diseases 10th Edition, ICD-10, code “J84.1”) mortality from the EUROSTAT dataset. We calculated country- age- and sex-specific death registration rates between 2013 and 2018. We used direct standardisation to compare rates between countries. We calculated annual trends in mortality rate ratios using a segmented regression model. Results The overall standardised mortality rate in EU Countries during this period was 3.90 per 10 0000 person-years (95%, CI 3.80–3.90), with the rate raising from 3.70 in the 2013 to 4.00 in the 2018 (average annual percent change: 1.74%, 95% CI 0.91–2.59). We observed substantial inter-country differences, with the highest rates detected in Ireland, the UK, and Finland, the lowest rate in Bulgaria, and middle rates in Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Slovenia. Conclusion In summary, the IPF mortality rate is increasing across Europe. There are currently more than 17 000 deaths recorded from IPF each year in Europe but the marked geographical differences we observed suggest that this figure may underestimate the true rate considerably.