There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Gallbladder disease is one of the most common conditions in the United States, but
its true prevalence is unknown. A national population-based survey was performed to
determine the age, sex, and ethnic distribution of gallbladder disease in the United
States.
The third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) conducted
gallbladder ultrasonography among a representative U.S. sample of more than 14, 000
persons. The diagnosis of gallbladder disease by detection of gallstones or cholecystectomy
was made with excellent reproducibility.
An estimated 6.3 million men and 14.2 million women aged 20-74 years had gallbladder
disease. Age-standardized prevalence was similar for non-Hispanic white (8. 6%) and
Mexican American (8.9%) men, and both were higher than non-Hispanic black men (5.3%).
These relationships persisted with multivariate adjustment. Among women, age-adjusted
prevalence was highest for Mexican Americans (26.7%) followed by non-Hispanic whites
(16.6%) and non-Hispanic blacks (13.9%). Among women, multivariate adjustment reduced
the risk of gallbladder disease for both Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic blacks
compared with non-Hispanic whites.
More than 20 million persons have gallbladder disease in the United States. Ethnic
differences in gallbladder disease prevalence differed according to sex and were only
partly explained by known risk factors.