Objective: To analyse trends in incidence rates of acute leukaemia
in patients aged 15 and over admitted to hospital. Design: A descriptive epidemiological
study.
Setting: University teaching hospital, Haematology Clinic, Skopje.
Results: The crude incidence rates of acute leukaemia in adults during this
period increased substantially (p for overall trend < 0.001). The lowest crude incidence
rates (CIR) were observed in 1996 (CIR = 1.64/100 000; 95% Confidence Interval CI =
1.1–2.4), while the highest were noted in 2003 (CIR = 3.76/100 000; 95% CI = 2.9–4.8).
In 1993 the sex ratio of the incidence rates (males to females) was Rate Ratio (RR) =
2.23, while as of 2001 the association between sexes disappeared (RR = 1). The trend in
males was not significant (p = 0.160), while in females it showed a monotonic increase
that was highly significant (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: During a short period of time (11 years) we have noted an
increase in the incidence rates of acute leukaemia in our population aged 15 years and
above. The study suggests that this could be due to increased risk in females, and in
adults over 40 years. In addition, according to the census results in 1994 and 2002 the
proportion of people aged 65 and above increased by 30.5% implying that this demographic
change could account for part of the relative increase in the incidence rates of
acute leukaemia. Further analytic studies are needed to address the possible causes of
these changes.