An Investigation of Comorbid Disease and Health Service Utilization Among Patients With Moderate to Severe Psoriasis in Newfoundland and Labrador

• Published in: Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery
• Main Authors: Gulliver, Wayne P., Randell, Shane, Gulliver, Susanne, Macdonald, Don, Gregory, Valerie, Nagle, Sean, Chambenoit, Olivier
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2018
• Subjects: Dermatology; Surgery; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1203475418791114; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1203475418791114; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1203475418791114

Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin condition affecting 2% to 3% of the population and is associated with several comorbidities, including cardiovascular disease, depression, inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic syndrome, mood disorder, psoriatic arthritis, and weight gain. Psoriasis is treated with a number of topical and systemic therapies, including biologic drugs that directly target proinflammatory cytokines. This cross-sectional retrospective study investigated comorbid conditions reported in the Newfoundland and Labrador psoriasis population, outcomes associated with therapeutic treatment, and use of health care resources. Of the psoriasis comorbidities investigated, psoriatic arthritis was significantly associated with the use of biologic therapy while a failure to respond to biologics was associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease. Patients responsive to biologic treatment had fewer hospital stays than patients treated with other therapies. Our results suggest that biologic therapies have a cardioprotective effect and reduce the number of hospital visits in patients whose symptoms are responsive to treatment.