Mortality From Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Finland 1987–2022

BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease. We assessed changes in the mortality from ALS in Finland from 1987 to 2022. METHODS: Numbers of deaths caused by ALS (ICD-10 code G12.2) and population sizes by sex, age group, and year were obtained from Statistics Finland. Crude and age-standardized mortality rates were calculated. The annual percentage change was estimated using Poisson regression, and joinpoint regression was used to identify changes in trend during the study period. RESULTS: Mortality from ALS increased in Finland from 1987 to 2022. The age-standardized ALS mortality in the entire population was 2.24/100,000 in 1987 and 4.21/100,000 in 2022. The male: female ratio in mortality was 1.18. The age-standardized mortality increased on average by 1.7% (95% CI 1.5%-2.0%) annually. In men, the age-standardized mortality increased on average by 1.2% (95% CI 0.9%-1.6%) annually and in women by 2.0% (95% CI 1.6%-2.3%). The largest increase occurred in the oldest age group (70+ years), with an average annual increase of 2.4% (95% CI 2.0%-2.8%). In joinpoint regression, no changes in trend were identified overall or in men, but in women, the annual percentage change (APC) was 5.5% (95% CI 3.0%-8.0%) in 1987-1997 and 1.0% (95% CI 0.5%-1.4%) during 1997-2022. CONCLUSION: Similar to some other countries, mortality from ALS has increased in Finland, nearly doubling in 35 years. Further research on possible reasons is needed.