Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis Deaths Rose Steadily Across 32 Countries Over Two Decades

An analysis published in Scientific Reports drew on the World Health Organization Mortality Database, covering 7,581 deaths among adults aged 20 years and older in 32 countries between 1999 and 2019, with deaths identified using the ICD-10 code J67. The pooled age-standardized mortality rate was 0.0394 per 100,000 population (95% CI 0.0385–0.0403), calculated against the WHO World Standard Population. The trajectory was not uniform across the study period.

Mortality remained stable from 1999 to 2004, then climbed thereafter, with an annual percent change of 7.34% (95% CI 6.66–8.02) during the rising phase and an average annual percent change of 5.43% (95% CI 4.35–6.52) across the full two decades. Joinpoint regression was used to identify these shifts in trend, while Kitagawa decomposition separated the influence of population aging from changes in age-specific death rates. That decomposition showed population aging accounted for 12.2% of the increase in crude mortality among adults aged 40 years and older, leaving the majority of the rise attributable to factors other than the shifting age structure alone.

The analysis revealed clear demographic gradients. Men recorded a higher overall mortality rate than women, at 0.0496 versus 0.0317 per 100,000, yet the increase over time was steeper in women, with an average annual percent change of 6.40% compared with 4.45% in men. Mortality also rose sharply with age, reaching 0.2977 per 100,000 among adults aged 80 years and older.

The study's authors caution that the observed trends may reflect changes in diagnostic recognition and death certification practice as well as genuine changes in disease occurrence, a limitation inherent to any analysis based on coded mortality data. As an observational analysis of routine mortality data, the study establishes patterns of recorded deaths rather than causal explanations, and the authors note that between-country heterogeneity complicates any single interpretation of the underlying drivers.

Subject of Research: Temporal trends in hypersensitivity pneumonitis-coded mortality across 32 countries, 1999–2019

Article Title: Temporal trends in hypersensitivity pneumonitis–coded mortality: a multinational analysis of 32 countries, 1999–2019

Article References: Yoon, H.-Y. (2026). Temporal trends in hypersensitivity pneumonitis–coded mortality: a multinational analysis of 32 countries, 1999–2019. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-78178-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-78178-x

Keywords: hypersensitivity pneumonitis, mortality trends, WHO Mortality Database, interstitial lung disease, epidemiology, global health, population aging, occupational lung disease, Temporal, trends, hypersensitivity, pneumonitis