The incidence and prevalence of Dupuytren's disease in primary care: results from a text mining approach on registration data.

Background: The focus of research and management of Dupuytren's disease (DD) is shifting from relieving symptoms in the later stages of disease towards the prevention of contractures. Treatment services might likewise shift towards primary care. Studying characteristics of DD patients who seek medical care for the first time, may identify a symptomatic target group for early DD treatments. We present the first study that estimates the incidence and prevalence of DD in primary care by applying a text-mining algorithm to registration data.

Methods: This is a population-based cohort study using electronic health records from Dutch general practices involved in a regional research network. Descriptive statistics were used to describe sex, age, comorbidities and lifestyle factors, the latter two were identified via International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) codes. Incidence rate was calculated as number of patients with a first contact for DD/1000 person years for the years 2017-2021, point prevalence as the percentage of patients with a contact for DD in 2021. DD contacts were identified using a text-mining algorithm.

Results: The incidence ranged between 1.41 and 1.72/1000 person years and the overall prevalence was 1.99%. Incidence and prevalence are higher among males and increase with age, peaking between 61 and 80 years.

Conclusions: Our results of prevalence and incidence of DD in primary care give an insight into the relevant population of patients with symptomatic DD that might be the future target group for potential disease controlling treatments.