Kids with psoriasis likely to be obese or overweight

Public release date: 19-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Marla Paul marla-paul@northwestern.edu 312-503-8928 Northwestern University

CHICAGO --- The largest study of physician-treated children with psoriasis around the world shows children with the skin disease are about twice as likely to be overweight or obese as children who don't have the disease, according to new Northwestern Medicine research.

And US children with psoriasis have much higher odds than psoriatic children in other countries of being obese or overweight.

In the US, children with psoriasis had four times the odds of being overweight or obese as healthy controls. Within this US population, Hispanics and African American children had significantly greater rates of being obese and overweight than whites and Asians. The odds ratio of being obese were particularly high for U.S. children with more severe psoriasis (7.6).

"There has been increasing attention to the association of psoriasis and metabolic risks in adults, but this study shows that the association of being overweight or obese and having psoriasis may be even higher in affected children than in adults," said Amy Paller, M.D., chair of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and lead author of the study. She also is a pediatric dermatologist at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

The paper will be published Nov. 19 in Archives of Dermatology

"This is incredibly significant," Paller said. "It tells us these children are at increased risk of health complications (cardiac risk and insulin resistance) and need to be watched closely and treated."

The study included 614 children five to 17 years old from nine countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Previous studies showing an association between psoriasis and obesity were largely based on registry data, which is less precise and may under identify cases because of the reliance on diagnosis codes rather than a direct examination and measurements to calculate Body Mass Index.

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Kids with psoriasis likely to be obese or overweight