IMPROVE: mortality in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis

This study from Copenhagen, Denmark set out to estimate whether there was an increased risk of death in patients with psoriasis. This common skin condition has been linked with a number of other illnesses such as heart disease which may affect a patient's life expectancy. In Denmark there is a National Patient Registry, which was used to compare death rates in patients with different clinical forms of psoriasis, including psoriatic arthritis, with a control group who did not have psoriasis. The information was based on patients who had been treated in hospital and may therefore have had more severe forms of the disease. Overall patients with psoriasis died at a younger age group than controls ‐ 71 compared with 74.5 years. Death occurring in patients with psoriasis was more likely in those with psoriasis and diseases of the gastrointestine, the heart and circulatory system, lung and endocrine system. Psoriasis patients with metabolic disease, including obesity, as well as cancers in general were also at higher risk of death. There was a small increased risk of death in patients with psoriatic arthritis if the patients also had lung or some infectious diseases. Overall this study re‐enforces previous work that has suggested that patients with the more severe forms of psoriasis have higher death rates than the general population.