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Epidemiology

The first estimate of US prevalence for autoimmune diseases as a group was published in 1997 by Jacobson, et al. They reported US prevalence to be around 9 million, applying prevalence estimates for 24 diseases to a US population of 279 million. Jacobson's work was updated by Hayter & Cook in 2012. This study used Witebsky's postulates, as revised by Rose & Bona, to extend the list to 81 diseases and estimated overall cumulative US prevalence for the 81 autoimmune diseases at 5.0%, with 3.0% for males and 7.1% for females.

The estimated community prevalence, which takes into account the observation that many people have more than one autoimmune disease, was 4.5% overall, with 2.7% for males and 6.4% for females. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys conducted in the US from the 1980s to 2020 showed an increase of antinuclear antibodies, a common biomarker for autoimmune diseases. This shows that there has been an increase in the prevalence of autoimmune diseases pointing to a stronger influence of environment factors as a risk factor for autoimmune diseases.

A 2024 estimate was that 1 in 15 people in the U.S. had at least one autoimmune disease.