Prevalence of Psoriasis Vulgaris and Its Associated Risk Factors in Pakistan

Aim: To find out the prevalence of psoriasis vulgaris and its associated risk factors.

Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional.

Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted at Rawalpindi Leprosy Hospital during January 2019 to December 2019.

Methodology: The diagnosed cases of Psoriasis Vulgaris (PsV) were included in the study. All the patients were investigated on the basis of an in depth Performa. The Performa include all the relevant clinical and family history of the patient along with the personal details. Data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. All the numerical variables were presented as mean with standard deviation while categorical data as frequency and percentages. The association of risk factors with the Psoriasis was calculated by using the Chi-square test. p-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant.

Results: Mean age with standard deviation of patients was 34.7±14. Most of the diagnosed patients were male and below 40 years of age, only 4.2% cases were having positive family history of Psoriasis and found significant correlation. The frequency of onset of symptoms in adolescent was more as compared to childhood i.e. 95.3% and 4.7% respectively. Majority of psoriasis cases (65.3%) were from non-smoker group and having strong association with smoking. The frequency of arthritis among psoriasis patients was 23.7% and majority of the patients, who developed arthritis were those having age <40 year and were suffering from psoriasis since 5-10 years.

Conclusion: Current study concluded that Psoriasis vulgar is having higher prevalence rate among male and below 40 years of age group. The results also suggested a strong association of severity of psoriasis with certain risk factors including family history, age of onset of symptoms, smoking and arthritis.