Introduction

Materials and methods

Results

Discussion

Limitations of the study

Conclusion

References

Abstract

Background and objectives
Psoriasis is a chronic immunoinflammatory skin disease very frequent in the western world. Several authors have tried to calculate its prevalence in different regions, although most of them obtained the data from surveys and there are few publications from Mediterranean areas. The objective of our study was to analyze the prevalence and severity of psoriasis in Lleida (a northeastern region in Spain), identify age and sex specific differences and compare our results with other European series.
Materials and methods
A joint database of primary care medicine and the dermatology department was obtained from the entire province of Lleida with epidemiological data and psoriasis diagnosis and treatment codification.
Results
A corrected database was obtained with 398,701 individuals and 6,868 of them (1.72%) were coded with the diagnosis of psoriasis. The prevalence was significantly higher in men than in women (1.88% vs 1.56%, OR = 1.21, 95% CI: 1.15-1.27). The highest prevalence of psoriasis was found in the 61-70 years group (2.90%) and psoriasis in population under 18 years of age was 0.30%. In our sample, 7.27% of the patients were classified as moderate-severe psoriasis (499/6,868).
Conclusion
This study reports the prevalence and severity of psoriasis in a large Mediterranean region sample, obtaining the information through a electronic database. This study reveals a lower prevalence of psoriasis compared to other European countries, and the proportion of severe psoriasis (based on treatment criteria) is lower than in other studies. We emphasize that these differences could probably due to genetic background, life style and diet.

Introduction

Psoriasis is a chronic immune-inflammatory cutaneous disease affecting 1-3% of the world population,1,2 corresponding to about 125 million individuals.3 In Spain, the estimated prevalence of psoriasis was 1.4-2.7% through two telephonic surveys.4,5 In addition, it has a significant impact on self-esteem and quality of life, and patients with moderate to severe psoriasis report a similar quality of life to heart failure or breast cancer.6 A great proportion of the studies performed to calculate the prevalence of diseases such as psoriasis have been conducted by means of surveys, studying only a portion of the population that is significant enough. In addition, the geographic zone may modify psoriasis prevalence 7and there are not many population-based studies of psoriasis epidemiology in Mediterranean areas, where population diet or habits could play an important role.8 The objective of this study is to know the prevalence and severity of psoriasis (globally and by subgroups) through the analysis of a computerized clinical history (eCAP) that collects all the inhabitants of Lleida, a province located in the northeast of Spain, in Catalonia.