LB1070 A Comparative Analysis Between Global Burden of Disease and Patientslikeme.com Dermatologic Data

The purpose of this study is to appraise Global Burden of Disease (GBD) and PatientsLikeMe.com (PLM) databases for the evaluation of dermatologic disease. Utilizing the GBD results tool [http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool], incidence and prevalence data was extracted. In PLM, total number of subscribers for each disease and male/female distribution were assessed. Diseases analyzed were of the top fourteen diseases with the highest disability-adjusted life-year. As of September 2018, there were 658,183 total members on PLM and 7.1x109 total diagnoses reported by the GBD. Of the total members of PLM, 12,498 (1.90%) of subscribers reported a dermatologic condition. On GBD, 2.6x109 (37.4%) total skin diagnoses were reported. A comparative analysis between the two data sets demonstrated that they did not correlate (t (15) = 0.005). Spearman’s correlation (0.246) further shows that the two data sets are not associated. Just as GBD aims to connect the globe through objective measurement of disease burden, PLM allows individual patients to connect to others with similar conditions on a global scale. Until online communities like PLM have a greater degree of standardization and physician verification, these platforms are unable to adequately represent a comprehensive assessment of disease burden.