People who smoke have increased risk of psoriasis

Taipei, Taiwan: People who smoke are at increased risk of developing psoriasis, the risk is further augmented for individuals who smoked >25 cigarettes per day and for >20 pack-years, finds a new study.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, further finds that alcohol consumption was not significantly associated with the development of psoriasis.

Smoking and alcohol consumption have long been suspected of increasing psoriasis risk. Most evidence to date has derived from cross-sectional or case-control studies. Chen-Yi Wu, Department of Dermatology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, and colleagues conducted the study to investigate the effects of alcohol and smoking on incident psoriasis.

For the purpose, the research team collected alcohol consumption, smoking status, and other covariates from four rounds (2001, 2005, 2009, and 2013) of the Taiwan National Health Interview Survey. Incident psoriasis was identified from the National Health Insurance database. Cox regression model was used for the analysis.

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Key Findings:

• Of 60,136 subjects, 242 (0.40%) developed psoriasis.


• After controlling for demographics and comorbidities, alcohol consumption was not significantly associated with psoriasis risk.


• Conversely, psoriasis risk was higher for current smokers than never smokers.


• The risks were higher among subjects who smoked >25 cigarettes per day and for >20 pack-years.


• In subgroup analysis, current smoking was significantly associated with risk of psoriasis without psoriatic arthritis but not psoriatic arthritis alone.

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The major limitation of the study was that alcohol consumption was not assessed based on the number of drinks consumed, noted the researchers.

"This nationwide population-based cohort study from Taiwan demonstrated that current smoking status increased the risk of psoriasis. However, alcohol consumption was not significantly associated with increased psoriasis risk," concluded the authors.

For further reference log on to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2018.11.015