High prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with moderate or severe psoriasis in northern China

Recent studies suggest that psoriasis is a systemic disorder associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, such as obesity, hypertension and dyslipidemia. However, these risk factors have not been widely recognized across different populations. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the association of risk factors for CVD with psoriasis by comparing patients with psoriasis and matched controls in northern China. This study identified 291 patients with diagnosed moderate or severe psoriasis as cases and 445 age- and gender-matched subjects as controls. A significant association ( P < 0.01) was observed between overall psoriasis incidence and smoking [odds ratio (OR), 2.96; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 2.09–4.09], alcohol consumption (OR, 3.77; 95 % CI 2.381–5.955), diabetes (OR, 2.79; 95 % CI 1.70–4.59), hypertension (OR, 2.19; 95 % CI 1.56–3.06) and hyperlipidemia (OR, 1.76; 95 % CI 1.29–2.40). Furthermore, hypertension correlated with the duration of psoriasis after adjustment for age and sex. Hyperlipidemia, smoking and alcohol consumption were related to the severity of the disease. Moreover, patients with psoriasis had lower levels of apolipoprotein B (ApoB) and lipoprotein (Lip) than did controls ( P < 0.05). These data suggest that multiple risk factors for CVD are associated with psoriasis. CVD risk factor screening should be performed, and appropriate measures should be taken accordingly for psoriasis patients.