Real-World Data Study Finds Sickle Cell Decreases Life Expectancy by 32 Years in Brazil

May 10, 2023

A recently published real-world data (RWD) study in Blood Advances found that sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with a 32 year decrease in life expectancy in Brazil. SCD has a significant impact on health outcomes worldwide, causing a 22-year drop in the US, for example. This study examined healthcare data collected between 2015 and 2019.

According to , “In that five-year period, a total of 6,553,132 deaths were registered in Brazil, with 3,320 (0.05%) of them being people with SCD. The median age at death for people with SCD was 32 years, while the median age at death for the general population was 69 years. The majority of SCD patients who died from the disease were mixed race or Black (78.6%), and more than half were female (52.2%). Most deaths occurred in the southeast (44.9%) and northeast regions (34.6%) of the country, where the disease is more prevalent. The researchers identified 2,603 people whose primary cause of death, at a median age of 30 years, was SCD.”

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