Low prevalence of patients diagnosed with psoriasis in Nuuk: a call for increased awareness of chronic skin disease in Greenland

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Sofia H. C. Botvid, Lone Storgaard Hove, Marie Balslev Backe, Nils Skovgaard, Michael Lynge Pedersen, Carsten Sauer Mikkelsen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2022
• Subjects: Psoriasis; primary care; chronic disease; skin; Greenland; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic; Nuuk; Circumpolar Health; International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2022.2068111; https://doaj.org/article/dd5a3c9522cc4f20ac68dc8b19fce791

The objective of this study was to estimate the age- and gender-specific prevalence of psoriasis in Nuuk. Furthermore, we aimed to explore the common risk factors and comorbidities for patients with psoriasis compared to an age- and gender-matched control group. The study was designed as a cross- sectional case-control study based on national high-quality data from medical and population registers in Nuuk. A total of 175 patients (0.9%) were diagnosed with psoriasis in Nuuk by January 1 January 2022, of which 79 were females and 96 were males. The prevalence of patients diagnosed with psoriasis in the adult population aged 20 years old or more in Nuuk was 1.1%. No overall gender-specific difference in prevalence was observed. Chronic diseases including diabetes, hypertension, and obstructive lung disease were observed more frequently among patients with diagnosed psoriasis (28.6%) in Nuuk compared to controls (20.9%) (p < 0.05). We found a low prevalence of patients with psoriasis in Nuuk. We speculate that the prevalence found in this study is underestimated and thus, call for increased awareness of chronic skin disease in Nuuk, Greenland. Chronic co-morbidity to psoriasis was common.