Autoimmune comorbidities associated with sarcoidosis: a case-control study in the All of Us research program.

Objective: The degree to which sarcoidosis patients are affected by autoimmune diseases is poorly understood. Prior studies of autoimmune co-morbidities in sarcoidosis have focused on populations outside the USA or have been impeded by small sample sizes and limited scope. This case-control study evaluated the association between sarcoidosis and autoimmune diseases in a large, diverse cohort based in the USA.

Methods: We used data from the All of Us research programme to conduct a case-control study involving patients ≥18 years old, from 2018 to the present, diagnosed with sarcoidosis. Sarcoidosis cases and age-, sex- and race-matched controls were identified in a 1:4 ratio. Autoimmune co-morbidities were compared between sarcoidosis patients and controls in univariable and multivariable analyses using logistic regression. The degree of association was measured using the odds ratio (OR).

Results: A total of 1408 sarcoidosis cases and 5632 controls were included in this study. Seven of 24 examined autoimmune diseases were significantly associated with sarcoidosis in our multivariable analysis (0.05). The composite variable of any autoimmune disease was also significantly associated with sarcoidosis (OR = 2.29, 0.001).

Conclusion: We demonstrate an association between sarcoidosis and multiple autoimmune diseases in a large and diverse cohort based in the USA. These results underscore the need for careful screening of sarcoidosis patients for concomitant autoimmune disease.