ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Reprod. Health
Sec. Reproductive Epidemiology
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frph.2025.1642369
This article is part of the Research TopicEmerging Global Population Health Risks: From Epidemiological Perspectives Volume IIView all 5 articles
Global trends and health system impact on polycystic ovary syndrome: A comprehensive analysis of age-stratified females from 1990 to 2021
Provisionally accepted
- 1shenzhen longgang second people's hospital, Shenzhen, China
- 2Macau University of Science and Technology Faculty of Medicine, Taipa, Macao, SAR China
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Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a major factor for female infertility. The global burden of PCOS has generally been neglected due to insufficient data. This study aims to comprehensively assess the burden of PCOS among females aged 10 to 54 years globally from 1990 to 2021, to project trends for the next two decades, and to evaluate the impact of health system levels on PCOS prevalence. The incidence, prevalence and disability adjust life years (DALYs) from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 were analyzed, including global, socio-demographic index (SDI), GBD regions, health system levels and national data. PCOS global burden escalated by 28% from 1990 to 2021. In 2021, the estimated annual percentage changes (EAPC) value of age-standardized rate of prevalence (ASPR), incidence (ASIR) and DALYs (ASDR) were 0.77 (95% CI: 0.75-0.79), 0.74 (95% CI: 0.70-0.77), and 0.72 (95% CI: 0.68-0.75), respectively. High SDI regions showed elevated prevalence but slower growth (EAPC=0.09) versus low SDI regions which exhibited the highest acceleration (EAPC=1.23). Especially, the incidence and prevalence in advanced health system were highest, but the most dramatic upward trend was observed in the basic level. The top three countries for ASPR were Italy (8,113.16 per 100,000 females, 95% CI: 5,757.74-11,265.85), Japan (6,334.11 per 100,000 females, 95% CI: 4,579.73-8,798.66), New Zealand (5,689.13 per 100,000 females, 95% CI: 4,094.50-7,762.63). The incidence in adolescents aged 10 to 19 years was highest, warranting particular concern. This study underscored health systems and adolescents requiring attention strengthening as critical measures to control PCOS globally and to increase the fertility of women.
Keywords: Female life-cycle prevalence, global burden of disease 2021, Health system level, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, social demographic index
Received: 17 Jun 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zeng, Gan, Ou and Tomlinson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Weiwei Zeng, zwwspring@126.com
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