(24-08-10) Early obesity increases psoriatic arthritis risk: study

WASHINGTON: Excess weight and obesity in early adulthood can lead to
psoriatic arthritis (PsA), a novel study conducted by scientists from the
University of Utah in Salt Lake City, U.S., claims.

People who are obese by the age of 18 or earlier are more likely to develop
the disease as compared to those with a normal weight.

The study, aimed at analyzing if excess weight and other risk factors were
associated with the development of PsA, looked at 943 psoriasis patients.

Almost 250 participants in the cohort had PsA. The average age for the onset
of psoriasis was 27.17 years, while the average age for the onset for arthritis
was 37.09 years.

Skin symptoms appeared prior to arthritis in 78.9 percent of patients, while
in 9.9 percent the joint manifestations were visible earlier.

In the rest 11.2 percent participants, both skin and joint manifestations
appeared simultaneously.

Participants who were obese by 18 years of age were at a higher risk of
suffering from severe skin diseases i.e. 56.8 percent for obese versus 46.6
percent for overweight versus 38.7 percent for normal weight.

"These data support a growing concept that patients more prone to PsA might
benefit from more frequent and meticulous screening measures for early
detection and treatment of PsA, i.e., before the development of irreversible
joint destruction," the researchers observed.

Self-reporting of diagnosis of PsA and BMI at age 18, lack of information on
disease?s severity, joints affected, and sub-classification of PsA were few of
the various limitations of the Utah psoriasis study.

"Importantly, the limitations of this study include the case definition of
PsA, difficulty establishing a temporal relationship between the factors
evaluated, and the lack of validation data on the accuracy of patient recall of
BMI at age 18 years," wrote Alexis Ogdie, MD, and Joel M. Gelfand, MD, of the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Clear identification of all the risk factors associated with PsA can lead to
the ability to diagnose the disease and even prevent it, believe researchers.

The study was supported in part by the Utah Psoriasis Initiative and the
Benning Foundation.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=109123

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