An association between psoriasis and metabolic syndrome in a cross-sectional case-control study

Psoriasis is now considered as a systemic inflammatory disorder and may thus be linked to the metabolic syndrome, which is characterized by a sub-clinical inflammatory state. In order to investigate the association between psoriasis and metabolic syndrome, a cross-sectional study was conducted by researchers of the Clalit Health Services (Israel). The study included 16,851 patients with a diagnosis of psoriasis vulgaris and 48,681 controls from the Clalit Health Services database. Among patients with psoriasis, diabetes was present in 13.8%, hypertension in 27.5%, obesity in 8.4% and ischaemic heart disease in 14.2% whereas among controls, diabetes occurred in 7.3%, hypertension in 14.4%, obesity in 3.6% and ischemic heart disease in 7.1%. The difference between both groups was significant for all parameters (P<0.001). After adjusting for age, gender, and smoking status, multivariate models revealed that psoriasis was associated with metabolic syndrome, ischaemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and obesity. Based on these results, the authors conclude that appropriate treatment of metabolic syndrome may play an important role in the management of psoriasis.

Abstract

Keywords:
Diabetes – Hypertension – Inflammation – Ischaemic heart disease – Metabolic syndrome – Obesity