Incidence of pediatric rheumatic diseases in a regional population in Austria.

Abstract

Establishment of a population based disease registry led to collection of descriptive epidemiologic data on a defined regional cohort of children with rare disorders. Our registry will provide data on pediatric rheumatic diseases in a European population and will allow more accurate comparisons between populations for future research. Our data also indicate that more resources should be designated for the care of pediatric rheumatic diseases in view of the relatively high incidences of these diseases.