Psoriasis Incidence Increases in Presence of Allergic Diseases

Patients with allergic diseases may have an increased risk for developing psoriasis, according to study results presented at the American Academy of Dermatology virtual meeting.

“To date, the association between allergic diseases and psoriasis has not been evaluated,” Ji Hyun Lee, MD, PhD, of the department of dermatology, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, Catholic University of Korea, and colleagues wrote. “Therefore, we determined the incidence and hazard ratio of psoriasis in patients with allergic diseases using data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database.”

In the nationwide population-based cohort study, 9,718,722 subjects aged 20 years and older were analyzed. Results showed the risk for developing psoriasis was significantly higher in subjects with atopic dermatitis (HR 3.178; 95% CI, 3.052-3.309), allergic rhinitis (HR 1.32; 95% CI, 1.305-1.335) and asthma (HR 1.269; 95% CI, 1.268-1.325).

Overall, the risk for psoriasis development increased with the number of allergic diseases present. The hazard ratio for psoriasis development was highest in the presence of all three allergic diseases (HR 3.157; 95% CI, 2.701-6.689).

“In conclusion, patients with AD, [allergic rhinitis] or asthma showed increased risk of psoriasis compared with controls. This suggests that these diseases share some immune and inflammatory features,” the authors wrote. “Further research is required to explore the shared pathogenesis of psoriasis and allergic diseases, particularly AD.”