Table 1

Incidence of HZ

Country	Author	Study design and population	Case ascertainment	Year	HZ cases	Age	Incidence 1000 person- years	95% CI
USA	Ragozzino	Medical records database in Minnesota	ICD-9 confirmed by medical records	1945–1959	590	All ages	1.31	1.15 to 1.35*
USA	Donahue	Health maintenance organisation claims database in Massachusetts	ICD-9 confirmed by medical records	1990–1992	1075	All ages	2.15	2.02 to 2.28*
USA	Insinga	MarketScan claims database in the USA	ICD-9	2000–2001	9152	All ages	3.20	3.10 to 3.20
USA	Mullooly	Kaiser Northwest health maintenance organisation claims database	ICD-9 multiplied by positive predictive value	1997–2002	9895	All ages	3.69	3.58 to 3.82
USA	Yih	Annual random-digit telephone survey in Massachusetts	Survey from patients	1999–2003	194	All ages	4.33	3.72 to 4.93*
USA	Jumaan	Health maintenance organisation claims database in Washington	ICD-9	1992–2002	357	All ages	3.71
USA	Oxman	Zostavax trial in the control group	Notified by physicians and PCR/culture confirmation	1998–2001	642	≥60 years	11.12
USA	Yawn	Retrospective population-based study confirmed by medical records in Minnesota	ICD-9 confirmed by medical records	1996–2001	1669	≥22 years	3.60	3.40 to 3.70
USA	Rimland	National Veterans Affairs claims database	ICD-9	2000–2007†	28 710	All ages	5.22
USA	Leung	MarketScan claims database	ICD-9	1993–2006†	48 000	All ages	4.40	4.30 to 4.40
USA	Tseng	Kaiser Southern California health maintenance organisation claims database in the unvaccinated group	ICD-9	2007–2009	4606	≥60 years	13.0	12.6 to 13.3
USA	Langan	Medicare claims database in the unvaccinated group	ICD-9	2007–2009	19 385	≥65 years	15.1	14.9 to 15.3
USA	Chen	Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid MarketScan claims database	ICD-9	2005–2009	435 378	≥18 years	4.82	4.81 to 4.84
USA	Hales	Medicare claims database	ICD-9	1992–2010†	281 317	≥65 years	14.2	14.0 to 14.5
Canada	Brisson	Administrative claims database in Manitoba	ICD-9	1979–1997†	NA	All ages	3.48
Canada	Russell	Health insurance claims database in Alberta	ICD-9/ICD-10	1986–2002†	NA	All ages	4.30
Canada	Edgar	Administrative claims database in British Columbia	ICD-9	1994–2003	114 596	All ages	2.89
Canada	Tanuseputro	Administrative claims database in Ontario	ICD-9	1992–2010	686 763	All ages	3.23
Canada	Russell	Health insurance claims database in Alberta	ICD-9/ICD-10	1994–2010†	213 265	All ages	4.50
UK	Hope-Simpson	Prospective population-based study in Cirencester	Medical records by GP	1947–1962	192	All ages	3.39
UK	Ross	Prospective population-based study in Glasgow	Notified by 10 GPs	1972–1973	87	All ages	2.40
UK	Brisson	RCGP database in England and Wales	ICD-9 medical records by GPs	1979–1997†	NA	All ages	3.82
UK	Brisson	RCGP database in England and Wales	ICD-9 medical records by 69 GPs	1991–2000	NA	All ages	3.73
UK	Fleming	RCGP database in England and Wales	ICD-9 medical records by GPs	1994–2001†	14 532	All ages	3.90
UK	Chapman	RCGP database in England and Wales	ICD-9 medical records by GPs	1994–2001	NA	≥15 years	3.95
UK	Scott	Prospective population-based study in East London	Notified by 18 GPs and PCR confirmation	NA	186	All ages	1.85
UK	Gauthier	GPRD in UK	Medical records by 603 GPs	2000–2006	27 225	≥50 years	5.23	5.17 to 5.29
France	Chidiac	Prospective sentinel surveillance	Notified by 4635 GPs and 513 dermatologists	1997–1998	8103	All ages	4.80
France	Czernichow	Retrospective population-based study	Survey from 744 GPs	1998	605	All ages	3.20	3.00 to 3.40
France	Gonzalez- Chiappe	Prospective sentinel surveillance	Notified by 1200 GPs	2005–2008	2375	All ages	3.82	3.64 to 4.05
France	Mick	Retrospective population-based study	Survey from 231 GPs, 41 dermatologists and 15 neurologists	2005	777	≥50 years	8.99	8.34 to 9.64
Germany	Paul	Prospective population-based study in Ansbach	Notified by GPs, dermatologists and others	1992–1993	152	All ages	2.26
Germany	Schiffner-Rohe	National Statutory Health Insurance claims database	ICD-10	2004	1170	≥50 years	9.80	9.20 to 10.40
Germany	Ultsch	National Statutory Health Insurance claims database	ICD-10	2007–2008	374 645	≥50 years	9.60	9.56 to 9.63
Germany	Ultsch	National Statutory Health Insurance claims database	ICD-10	2004–2009	5384	All ages	5.79	5.64 to 5.93
The Netherlands	Opstelten	Huisartsen Netwerk Utrecht database in six locations	Medical records from 22 GPs	1994–1999	837	All ages	3.40	2.90 to 3.90
The Netherlands	de Melker	Prospective sentinel surveillance	Notified by 43 GPs	1998–2001	NA	All ages	3.25
The Netherlands	Opstelten	National survey of physicians	Medical records from 104 GPs	2001	1080	All ages	3.22	3.00 to 3.40
The Netherlands	Pierik	Retrospective population-based study in Almere	Medical records from 22 GPs	2004–2008	3371	All ages	4.75	4.06 to 5.44
Switzerland	Richard	Prospective sentinel surveillance	Notified by 250 physicians	1998–2001	2236	All ages	2.36
Belgium	Bilcke	Retrospective population-based study	Notified by 150 GPs	2000–2007	NA	All ages	3.78
Spain	Pérez-Farinós	Prospective sentinel surveillance in Madrid	Notified by GPs	1997–2004†	1798	All ages	3.59	3.22 to 3.97
Spain	García Cenoz	Primary care database in Navarre	Medical records from GPs	2005–2006	4959	All ages	4.15
Spain	Cebrián-Cuenca	Prospective population-based study in Valencia	Notified by 25 GPs	2006–2007	146	≥14 years	4.10	3.40 to 4.70
Spain	Morant-Talamante	Electronic medical record database in Valencia	ICD-9	2007–2010	85 586	All ages	4.60	4.57 to 4.63
Spain	Esteban-Vasallo	Electronic medical record in the Madrid regional public health system	ICPC	2005–2012†	211 650	All ages	4.82
Italy	di Luzio Paparatti	Retrospective population-based study	Survey from 71 GPs	1995	408	≥15 years	4.14	3.75 to 4.56
Italy	Di Legami	Prospective population-based study in Piedmont	Notified by 24 GPs	2004	46	≥14 years	1.74	1.28 to 2.32
Italy	Gialloreti	National primary-care database (Societa Italiana Medici Generici)	Medical records from 342 GPs	2003–2005	5675	All ages	4.31	4.11 to 4.52
Iceland	Helgason	Prospective population-based study	Notified by 62 GPs	1990–1995	462	All ages	2.00	1.80 to 2.20
Sweden	Studahl	Swedish National Pharmacy register	Prescriptions for antiviral medications	2006–2010	127 832	All ages	2.70
Greece	Lionis	Prospective population-based study in rural Crete	Notified by 19 GPs	2007–2009	58	All ages	1.60
Israel	Weitzman	Maccabi Healthcare Services claims database	ICD-9	2006–2010	28 977	All ages	3.46
Saudi Arabia	Alakloby	Medical records from the dermatology clinic	Medical charts from the dermatologist	1988–2006	141	All ages	6.20	5.18 to 7.22*
Australia	Stein	National GP database (Bettering the Evaluation of Care and Health)	Medical records of GPs	2000–2006	379	≥50 years	9.67	8.66 to 10.68
Taiwan	Jih	Taiwan National Health Insurance claims database	ICD-9	2000–2006	34 280	All ages	4.89	4.76 to 5.04*
Taiwan	Lin	Taiwan National Health Insurance claims database	ICD-9	2000–2005	672 782	All ages	4.97	4.96 to 4.98
Taiwan	Chao	Taiwan National Health Insurance claims database	ICD-9	2000–2008	11 908	All ages	5.67
South Korea	Park	NA	NA	1999–2003	1089	All ages	2.98
South Korea	Choi	Health Insurance claims database (estimated prevalence)	ICD-10	2003–2007	2 431 744	All ages	9.97
Japan	Toyama	Prospective population-based study in Miyazaki	Notified by 46 dermatology clinics	1997–2006	48 388	All ages	4.15	4.12 to 4.19*
Argentina	Vujacich	Medical records from the ID reference centre	Medical charts from IDs	2000–2005	302	All ages	3.57	3.17 to 3.97*
Brazil	Castro	Medical records from the dermatology clinic	Medical charts from the dermatologist	1987–1989	469	All ages	5.62*
Colombia	Gaitan	Medical records from the oncology, radiology and nuclear medicine centre	Medical charts from patients without cancer	NA	75	NA	6.50*

*We computed the overall estimate or 95% CI based on the study results.
†The estimate from the latest study year.
GP, general practitioner; GPRD, general practice research database; HZ, herpes zoster; ICD, International Classification of Diseases; ICPC, International Classification For Primary Care; RCGP, Royal College of GPs.