Association of body mass index with clinical variants of psoriasis

Abstract

Introduction/Aim. Psoriasis is a common, chronic, immune-mediated, inflammatory and proliferative skin disease in which both genetic and environmental influences have a role in its pathogenesis. The relationship between psoriasis and obesity is probably bidirectional. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between psoriasis and obesity, whether a quantitative graduation of overweight using Body Mass Index (BMI) shows direct correlation with various clinical variants of psoriasis, disease duration and having positive family history of psoriasis. Methods. This prospective, observational descriptive cross-sectional study included 120 psoriatic patients who were referred to Clinic of Dermatovenereology at the University Clinical Centre of Vojvodina. Clinical variants of psoriasis were determined. Age, gender, duration of the disease, BMI and family history of psoriasis were measured and compared. Results. In total, 53.3% males and 46.7% females were included in this study. The mean age was 49.5 ? 15.5 years. The most present clinical variants of psoriasis were psoriasis vulgaris (55%) and psoriatic arthritis (30%). Most of the patients (42.5%) were overweight, 23.3% were obese, and 1.7% were morbidly obese. The mean BMI was high (27.7 ? 5.2). Mean duration of the disease was 15.6 ? 14.9 years. Positive family history of psoriasis was found in 33 (27.5%) patients. Conclusion. There was no correlation between the BMI and gender of the patients, psoriasis clinical variants, duration of the disease and positive family history of psoriasis. The slight positive correlation was found between BMI and age of psoriatic patients. That requires further studies that include physical activities questionnaire, considering that lack of physical activities in older patients might be an explanation.