Epidemiologic Study of Psoriasis and Concomitant Diseases Among Patients Referred to Dermatology Clinic of Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ahvaz 2006 to 2011

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease which continually causes other systemic disorders such as, hypertension and diabetes for unknown reasons. The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiology of psoriasis and concomitant diseases among patients referred to the dermatology clinic of Imam Khomeini Hospital of Ahvaz during 2006-2011.

Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was performed on 854 patients with skin psoriasis referred to Ahvaz Imam Khomeini Hospital during 2006 to 2011. Medical records pertaining to the patients were studied in terms of features such as age, gender, family history, disease onset, disease duration, clinical form, location of the lesion, and concomitant diseases, e.g. hypertension, diabetes, depression, hypothyroidism, lupus, vitiligo and arthritis. Data were analyzed by SPSS software and reported as percent, mean and standard deviation.

Results: Of 854 patients in vestigated during 5 years, 489 (57%) were male and 365 (43%) were female. The mean age of patients was 31.215.6 years; the mean age of disease onset was 26.711.7 years. Mean duration of disease was 12.36.9 years in men and women; 254 (29.8%) of patients had a positive family history of the disease. Most parts in the body which affected were feet (42%) and hands (34%). The most common clinical form of psoriasis was vulgaris (71.4%). Furthermore, other disease which observed with psoriasis were including;hypertension (32.7%), diabetes type 2 (25.6%), depression (16.9%), arthritis (9.4%), hypothyroidism (6.2%), vitiligo (5.1%) and lupus (4.1%).

Conclusion: Given the high percentage of diseases associated with psoriasis in the study, it is necessary to improve the patients' awareness about the concomitant diseases, how to deal with them and doing further screening for better and earlier identification of these problems.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Psoriasis; Concomitant disease