The epidemiology of skin and skin-related diseases: a review of population-based studies performed by using the Rochester Epidemiology Project.

In Olmsted County, Minnesota, population-based epidemiologic research studies are possible because of a unique medical records linkage system, the Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP), which has been in place for almost half a century. We present a summary of epidemiologic data describing the incidence of skin diseases derived from the REP. Since 1966, more than 2000 articles have been published by the REP team. Each published article was reviewed by both authors in conjunction with the REP team to select all articles that described the incidence of skin and selected skin-related diseases. Collectively, these reports suggested that the incidence of most of the studied skin diseases has increased over the decades.