Pso diagnoses (ICD-9 codes: 696.1). One Pso-free patient (i.e., without Pso or psoriatic arthritis diagnosis) was randomly selected to match each Pso patient by age and gender. Patient demographic characteristics and comorbidity profile information, including the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score, the prevalence of autoimmune diseases, and an exhaustive list of other comorbidities were compared between Pso and Pso-free patients using Wilcoxon signed rank tests or McNemar tests. RESULTS: Among the 106,128 selected matched pairs, 52% were female and the mean age was 52 years (SDϭ15 years). In the Pso population, 77% had mild Pso (i.e., patients who did not use any systemic therapies) and 23% had moderate-tosevere Pso (i.e., patients receiving phototherapy, conventional systemic therapies, or biologics). Pso patients had a higher mean CCI score compared to Pso-free patients (1.06 vs. 0.74; pϽ.01). Compared to Pso-free patients, Pso patients had a significantly higher prevalence of autoimmune diseases, including psoriatic arthritis (10.2% vs. 0.0%), rheumatoid arthritis (5.4% vs.1.4%), ankylosing spondylitis (1.5% vs. 0.8%), ulcerative colitis (1.0 vs. 0.5%), and Crohn's disease (0.8% vs. 0.4%) (all pϽ.01). As shown in other studies, Pso patients also had higher prevalence of other comorbidities, including hypertension (41.8% vs. 34.5%), chronic pulmonary diseases (17.7% vs. 12.6%), diabetes (16.4% vs. 12.6%), hypothyroidism (12.0% vs. 9.0%), deficiency anemias (9.3% vs. 6.7%), valvular diseases (7.8% vs. 5.6%), solid tumor without metastases (7.2% vs. 5.8%), psychoses (6.5% vs. 4.2%), and peripheral vascular disease (6.4% vs. 4.3%) when compared to Pso-free patients (all pϽ.01). CONCLUSIONS: Psoriasis was associated with a substantial comorbidity burden, including a significantly higher prevalence of autoimmune diseases and other physical and mental comorbidities.
