Primary Sjogren’s syndrome and the risk of acute pancreatitis: a nationwide cohort study

Objective Studies on the risk of acute pancreatitis in patients with primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS) are limited. We evaluated the effects of pSS on the risk of acute pancreatitis in a nationwide, population-based cohort in Taiwan. Study design Population-based retrospective cohort study. Setting We studied the claims data of the >97% Taiwan population from 2002 to 2012. Participants We identified 9468 patients with pSS by using the catastrophic illness registry of the National Health Insurance Database in Taiwan. We also selected 37 872 controls that were randomly frequency matched by age (in 5 year bands), sex and index year from the general population. Primary outcome measure We analysed the risk of acute pancreatitis by using Cox proportional hazards regression models including sex, age and comorbidities. Results From 23.74 million people in the cohort, 9468 patients with pSS (87% women, mean age=55.6 years) and 37 872 controls were followed-up for 4.64 and 4.74 years, respectiv...