title: Incidence of venous thromboembolism in different ethnic groups: a regional direct comparison study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are few studies that directly compare the variation in incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) according to ethnicity.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to compare the rates of VTE, deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) among different ethnic groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  The cases diagnosed with VTE, DVT and PE for a period between March 2004 and June 2009 were identified through the hospital-based database system. The 2006 New Zealand Census data were used to calculate the rate of diagnosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The observed annual incidence of VTE during this period was 81.6 per 100000 population. The relative risks of VTE when comparing European subjects with Maori, Pacific Island and Asian subjects after age standardization were 1.98 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.63-2.41), 3.22 (95% CI, 2.60-3.99) and 4.02 (95% CI, 3.34-4.84), respectively. Relative risks of DVT after age standardization when comparing European subjects with Maori, Pacific Island and Asian subjects, were 2.14 (95% CI, 1.72-2.66), 3.20 (95% CI, 2.46-4.17) and 4.75 (95% CI, 3.80-5.94), respectively. Indirect age standardization was used for comparison of the diagnosis of PE. The ratio between the calculated expected number of cases and the actual number of cases was 1.32 (95% CI, 0.89-1.75) for Maori subjects, 2.96 (95% CI, 1.89-4.03) for Pacific Islanders and 3.89 (95% CI, 3.00-4.78) for Asians.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Europeans have a significantly higher incidence of VTE compared with Maori, Pacific Island and Asian populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Waikato District Health Board, Hamilton, New Zealand.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Woulfe
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hyder
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Merriman
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chunilal
mesh_terms: D005006:Ethnicity; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D054556:Venous Thromboembolism / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: deep venous thrombosis; ethnicity; incidence; pulmonary embolism; venous thromboembolism