Saskia C van der Boor, Ines Figaroa, Annemarie A Uijen, Stijn Fh Raven, Cornelia Van Jaarsveld
{"title":"Rising scabies incidence and the growing burden on general practitioners.","authors":"Saskia C van der Boor, Ines Figaroa, Annemarie A Uijen, Stijn Fh Raven, Cornelia Van Jaarsveld","doi":"10.3399/BJGPO.2025.0037","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Scabies cases are rising in several high-income European countries, but its true incidence remains unclear due to its non-notifiable status. General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in managing scabies, yet the impact on primary care is unknown.</p><p><strong>Aim: </strong>To assess the epidemiology and care burden of scabies-related episodes in general practice.</p><p><strong>Design & setting: </strong>A retrospective longitudinal study using pseudonymised data from Dutch GPs.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Data from 5 general practices, covering nearly 40,000 patients from 2014 to 2023, were analysed. Scabies-related episode incidence, time between scabies-related symptoms and first GP encounter (patient's delay), time between first GP encounter and scabies diagnosis (doctor's delay), and care burden were compared between two periods: 2014-2020 (low incidence) and 2021-2023 (high incidence).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>1525 scabies-related episodes including 4555 recorded encounters were included. Between 2014 and 2023, the incidence increased from 99 to 1341 episodes per 100 000 patient-years, with encounters rising from 614 to 2438 per 100 000 patient-years between the two periods. The largest increase in encounters occurred in those aged 17-25 years (<i>P</i><0.001) and in females (<i>P</i>=0.002). Patient delays>28 days decreased from 26.4% to 14.3%. Scabies diagnoses during initial consultations improved from 84.9% to 92.3%. Encounters without interventions declined from 36.9% to 14.4%. Medical prescriptions and referrals per 100 000 patient-years increased.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our findings highlight an exponential increase in scabies-related episodes, significantly increasing the burden on general practices. Regions experiencing rising scabies incidence rates should prioritize public health interventions to curb transmission, which require a coordinated clinical and public health response.</p>","PeriodicalId":36541,"journal":{"name":"BJGP Open","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BJGP Open","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGPO.2025.0037","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PRIMARY HEALTH CARE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Scabies cases are rising in several high-income European countries, but its true incidence remains unclear due to its non-notifiable status. General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in managing scabies, yet the impact on primary care is unknown.
Aim: To assess the epidemiology and care burden of scabies-related episodes in general practice.
Design & setting: A retrospective longitudinal study using pseudonymised data from Dutch GPs.
Method: Data from 5 general practices, covering nearly 40,000 patients from 2014 to 2023, were analysed. Scabies-related episode incidence, time between scabies-related symptoms and first GP encounter (patient's delay), time between first GP encounter and scabies diagnosis (doctor's delay), and care burden were compared between two periods: 2014-2020 (low incidence) and 2021-2023 (high incidence).
Results: 1525 scabies-related episodes including 4555 recorded encounters were included. Between 2014 and 2023, the incidence increased from 99 to 1341 episodes per 100 000 patient-years, with encounters rising from 614 to 2438 per 100 000 patient-years between the two periods. The largest increase in encounters occurred in those aged 17-25 years (P<0.001) and in females (P=0.002). Patient delays>28 days decreased from 26.4% to 14.3%. Scabies diagnoses during initial consultations improved from 84.9% to 92.3%. Encounters without interventions declined from 36.9% to 14.4%. Medical prescriptions and referrals per 100 000 patient-years increased.
Conclusion: Our findings highlight an exponential increase in scabies-related episodes, significantly increasing the burden on general practices. Regions experiencing rising scabies incidence rates should prioritize public health interventions to curb transmission, which require a coordinated clinical and public health response.