High waist circumference, regardless of overall body mass index, tied to higher risk
TUESDAY, June 18, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Abdominal obesity may increase the risk for psoriasis, according to a study published online May 31 in the Journal of Dermatology.
Ju Hee Han, M.D., from the Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital in South Korea, and colleagues used national data to identify patients newly diagnosed with psoriasis who had undergone health screening between 2009 and 2012 and were followed for five years.
The researchers found that among the total population of 22,633,536 individuals, 399,461 had newly developed psoriasis. A higher risk for psoriasis was seen among patients with body mass index (BMI) >30 kg/m² versus those with BMI from 18.5 to 23 kg/m² (hazard ratio, 1.118). There was a dose-dependent association between waist circumference (WC) and psoriatic risk, with patients having a WC >105 cm showing the highest risk for psoriasis (hazard ratio, 1.305) compared with patients with WC <75 to 80 cm, after adjusting for confounding factors, including BMI. Men with normal BMI and abdominal obesity had the highest risk for psoriasis (hazard ratio, 1.175).
“Our study indicates that WC is a specific factor affecting psoriatic risk and highlights the association between abdominal obesity and psoriasis, thus increasing awareness of the role of abdominal obesity in the pathogenesis and comorbidities of psoriasis,” the authors write.
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