BACKGROUND:

Psoriasis is regarded as a systemic inflammatory disease, having been linked in recent studies, to a wide range of systemic disorders. Previous studies have reported a positive correlation between psoriasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however, no studies have been conducted on an ethnic Chinese population.

METHODS:

We conducted a population-based study, using a representative cohort from the National Health Insurance database in Taiwan, between 2004 and 2006. The risk of COPD was compared between patients with psoriasis and a matched reference cohort. This study included 2096 psoriasis patients and 8384 randomly selected controls.

RESULTS:

After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and selected chronic diseases, the hazard ratio (HR) for COPD in psoriasis patients was 2.35 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.42-3.89) compared with the control group in 18 months of follow-4 up. Men (HR = 2.38, 95% CI: 1.36-4.18) and patients with psoriasis over 50 years of age (HR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.27-3.77) were more likely to contract COPD.

CONCLUSIONS:

We concluded that psoriasis patients were at a greater risk of developing COPD with significantly lower COPD-free survival rates than the comparison cohort (P < 0.001). Physicians should be aware of this potential risk to reduce comorbidity and mortality.

© 2011 The Authors. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology © 2011 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.