Background: Gender difference is prevalent in clinical feature, disease severity for noncommunicable diseases (NCD), but studies on gender disparity in clinical feature, disease severity and NCD comorbidity among psoriasis patients are limited. This cross-sectional study explores gender differences in clinical feature, lifestyle behavior and NCD comorbidity among psoriasis patients.
Methods: Psoriasis patients were recruited through cluster survey method in two hospitals, and questionnaire interviews were applied to collect the demographic feature, lifestyle habits, clinical feature and NCD among patients.
Results: A total of 2102 psoriasis patients included 1332 males (63.4%), 70% were over 35 years old and approximately 50% of them were overweight or obesity. The median value for psoriasis initiation age and disease duration was 33 years old (34 for male and 32 for female) and 9 years (10 for male and 7 for female), respectively. The psoriasis recurrence was mainly in winter (73.4%) and autumn (34.2%) both for patients. The prevalence of tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking was 31.2% and 12.6%. Male patients had higher prevalence of tobacco smoking (odds ratio (OR) = 13.26, 95% confidence interval (CI): 9.54– 18.44) and alcohol drinking (OR = 14.44, 95% CI: 7.90– 26.40). The prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and metabolic syndrome were 13.2%, 28.5%, 23.4% and 21.5%, respectively. Male patients had higher prevalence of diabetes (OR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.16– 2.02), hypertension (OR = 1.87, 95% CI: 1.52– 2.30), hyperlipidemia (OR = 2.34, 95% CI: 1.85– 2.95) and metabolic syndrome (OR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.63– 2.62) than female patients. The proportions for 4 types of NCDs diagnosed after psoriasis onset were over 58%, which were also higher in males than females.
Conclusion: Female patients had shorter disease duration and with less NCD, and male patients had more body weight issue, with fewer sleep time and higher prevalence of tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking and NCDs. We recommend that dermatologist should notice the gender disparity in psoriasis patients, which is helpful for the disease diagnosis and treatment.
Keywords: psoriasis, gender disparity, tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking, overweight, metabolic diseases, comorbidity