Risk of death higher in people with vs without psoriasis

Individuals with psoriatic disease (PsD) are at greater risk of all-cause mortality than those without PsD, reveals a Taiwan study. Specifically, the risk of death is higher in patients with psoriasis but not in those with psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

In this study, the investigators used the nationwide, population-based insurance claim datasets in Taiwan from 2010 to 2018 and identified incident PsD cases using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. Propensity score matching (PSM) was done to establish a nonexposed cohort.

The investigators used the National Mortality Database to identify deaths and used Cox regression to assess the risk of all-cause mortality in PsD compared with PSM nonexposed individuals. They also examined the risk of death in patients with more severe disease stratified by systemic therapy use and with PsA.

A total of 108,642 patients with incident PsD (40.2 percent women) and an equal number of PSM non-PsD individuals were included in the analysis. Patients with PsD had a higher mortality risk (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.73, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.68‒1.77; p<0.001) than age- and sex-matched controls.

After PSM, an attenuated but persistently increased risk of mortality (aHR, 1.20, 95 percent CI, 1.16‒1.24) was observed in patients with PsD compared with controls. Moreover, a trend of increased death was seen in patients exposed to biologic therapies, but not for those with PsA.