Diseases of the immune system are suffered by 10% of us

ILLNESSES MORE WIDESPREAD THAN THOUGHT, RESEARCHERS DISCOVER

AUTOIMMUNE diseases affect roughly one in 10 people in the UK, a new study has found.

An international research team, including scientists from Leicester, said the findings provide new clues on possible causes of these diseases.

The team said autoimmune diseases occur when the normal role of the immune system in defending against infections is disturbed, resulting in it mistakenly attacking normal healthy cells in the body.

Examples include type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

The study used anonymised health records from 22 million people in the UK to investigate 19 of the most common autoimmune diseases and to examine if cases are rising over time, who is most affected and how different autoimmune diseases may co-exist.

The researchers found the diseases studied affect about 10 per cent of the population – 13 per cent of women and 7 per cent of men.

This is higher than previous estimates.

They also discovered evidence of socioeconomic, seasonal and regional disparities among several disorders.

They suggest such variations are unlikely to be attributable to genetic differences alone and may point to the involvement of potentially modifiable risk factors.

The research also confirmed some autoimmune diseases tend to cluster together, however at a much larger scale and for a much larger set of diseases than previous studies.

First author of the paper, in The Lancet, Dr Nathalie Conrad, said: “We observed some autoimmune diseases tended to co-occur more commonly than would be expected by chance or increased surveillance alone.

“This could mean that some autoimmune diseases share common risk factors, such as genetic predispositions or environmental triggers.”

University of Leicester lead for the consortium, Professor Kamlesh Khunti, said: “As our study shows, autoimmune disorders are surprisingly common and can have a major impact on people’s health and quality of life.

“This research shows some conditions can co-occur and may have a major impact on people living with such multiple long-term conditions.”