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Psoriasis increases risk for alcohol-related mortality

Individuals with psoriasis were at a 60% increased risk for mortality due to alcohol-related causes, according to recent findings.

The incident cohort study included 55,537 individuals with psoriasis and 854,314 individuals without psoriasis observed using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink between 1998 and 2014. Eligible participants were linked to Hospital Episode Statistics and the Office for National Statistics on mortality.

Each psoriasis patient was matched with as many as 20 individuals without psoriasis of a comparable age, sex and general practice.

The median follow-up duration was 4.4 years (interquartile range, 6.2 years). Among psoriasis patients, the alcohol-associated mortality rate was 4.8 per 10,000 person-years (95% CI, 4.1-5.6; n = 152) compared with 2.5 deaths per 10,000 person-years (95% CI, 2.4- 2.7; n = 1,118) among comparators, resulting in a hazard ratio of 1.58 (95% CI, 1.31-1.91) for patients with psoriasis.

Alcoholic liver disease predominantly caused the fatality in 65.1% of these individuals, followed by liver fibrosis and cirrhosis (23.7%), and alcohol-related mental and behavioral disorders (7.9%).

Further multivariate analysis results indicated no variability in relative mortality risk based on age (P = .45), sex (P = .59) or Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile (P = .28), according to the findings.

In addition, 17.8% of patients in the psoriasis group who died of alcohol-associated factors and 24.3% of comparators never received a lifetime diagnosis of excessive alcohol consumption, or an alcohol-dependence prescription in primary care, the researchers added.

“People with psoriasis have approximately a 60% greater risk of dying due to alcohol-related causes compared with peers of the same age and sex in the general population,” the researchers concluded. “These findings call for routine screening, identification and treatment, using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) in both primary and secondary care to detect alcohol consumption and misuse among people diagnosed with psoriasis.” – by Rob Volansky

Disclosures: Parisi reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.