Clinical Epidemiology (Jun 2018)

Young patients with risk factors prevalent in the elderly – differences in comorbidity depending on severity of psoriasis: a nationwide cross-sectional study in Swedish health registers

  • Hajiebrahimi M,
  • Linder M,
  • Hägg D,
  • Anveden Berglind I,
  • McElligott S,
  • Valgardsson VS,
  • Villacorta R,
  • Sundström A

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 10
pp. 705 – 715

Abstract

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Mohammadhossein Hajiebrahimi,1,2 Marie Linder,1 David Hägg,1 Ina Anveden Berglind,1 Sean McElligott,3 Valgard Sverrir Valgardsson,4 Reginald Villacorta,3 Anders Sundström1 1Center for Pharmacoepidemiology, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 2Statistics and Epidemiology Unit, Health Faculty, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran; 3Janssen Research and Development, LLC, Horsham, PA, USA; 4Janssen-Cilag AS, Oslo, Norway Background: Association between psoriasis severity and cerebro- and cardiovascular comorbidities has rarely been investigated. Aim: We aimed to investigate differences in cerebro- and cardiovascular comorbidities by psoriasis severity. Materials and methods: Using Swedish nationwide health-care registers, new adult users of anti-psoriatic drugs (2007–2013) with a recorded diagnosis of psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis or a filled prescription for calcipotriol were included. Psoriasis severity was based on the type of anti-psoriatic treatment (topical/mild, non-biologic systemic/moderate-to-severe, and biologics/severe). Age standardized prevalence rates of cerebro- and cardiovascular comorbidities and their risk factors were compared between the groups. Results: We found that severe psoriasis patients (N=2147) were younger than moderate-to-severe (N=11,919) or mild (N=70,796) patients (median 44, 52, and 55 years). Prevalence of hypertension was 29.9%, 32.6%, and 36.5%, myocardial infarction was 2.5%, 2.3%, and 1.8%, and stroke was 2.4%, 2.2%, and 1.1% in mild, moderate-to-severe, and severe psoriasis patients, respectively. Diabetes prevalence was 7.6% in mild, 8.0% in moderate-to-severe, and 10.7% in severe psoriasis. Conclusion: Myocardial infarction and stroke were less common in patients with severe psoriasis while, despite being younger, they had a higher prevalence of diabetes and hypertension. Keywords: psoriasis, severity, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, prevalence

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