National Rare Diseases Registry System (NRDRS) – China’s First Nation-Wide Rare Diseases Demographic Analyses
Abstract China has made remarkable broad and system wide progress in serving the needs of its people living with rare diseases, especially over the last 5 years. The Chinese government’s systematic approach included a series of coordinated initiatives, amongst these are: forming the Rare Disease Expert Committee (2016), to funding the “Rare Diseases Cohort Study” (2016–2020), and to publishing its first “Rare Disease Catalog” (2018). Herein, we present the National Rare Diseases Registry System (NRDRS), China’s first national rare diseases registry, and analysis of the cases registered in the first 5 years ending Dec 31, 2020. The total 62,590 cases covered 166 diseases/disease types, forming 183 disease cohorts. The data from nearly 22% of them (13,947 cases) is also linked to valuable biological samples. The average age of definitive diagnosis was 30.88 years; 36.07% under 18 years of age. Regional distribution analysis showed 60% of cases were from the more developed East and North China, suggesting the local availability of quality care and patients’ financial status were key access factors. Finally, 82.04% of cases were registered from the five clinical departments: Neurology, Endocrine, Hematology, Cardiovascular, and Nephrology, suggesting that either these are most affected by rare diseases, or that there were disease non-specific ascertainment factors. The preliminary analysis of the first 5-year’s data provides unique and valuable insight on rare disease distribution in China, and higlights directions for enhancing equity, scale and utility.