A survey of patients with psoriatic disease found many respondents reported that their current disease, clinically considered to have limited skin involvement, was moderate to severe in severity. The results of the survey were published as a poster presented at Maui Derm Connect.
The Understanding Psoriatic Disease Leveraging Insights for Treatment (UPLIFT) survey was a multinational online survey conducted from March 2 to June 3, 2020. In this survey, limited skin involvement was defined as a body surface area (BSA) of 3 palms or less. The overall target sample size was 4729 participants, including dermatologists, rheumatologists, and patients. In this particular poster, the responses of the 1006 patients based in the United States were analyzed.
Of these 1006 patients (mean age, 46.3 years; 51.3% women), 53% had psoriasis only, 40% had psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and 7% had PsA only. These patients commonly reported plaques in various special areas, including:
- Scalp, 45.6%
- Face, 28.4%
- Palmoplantar, 22.5%
- Nails, 19.6%
- Genitals, 14.0%
In addition, the majority of patients had psoriasis plaques in at least 1 special area noted above.
Approximately 56% of patients with a limited BSA rated their current psoriasis symptoms as moderate or severe, or a visual analog scale score of 4-6 or 7-10, respectively. Similarly, in patients with a BSA of 4 to 10 palms (moderate skin involvement), 52.2% of patients thought of their disease as severe.
Further, patients who reported their psoriasis as moderate to severe had a higher mean Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) score, meaning these patients had greater impairment of their quality of life. Most patients (59%) who had limited skin involvement but psoriasis in one or more special area had a DLQI score greater than 5; the mean DLQI score for these patients was 10.5
“These findings suggest there is a persistent unmet need in this patient population,” concluded the study authors.
Reference
Lebwohl M, Ogdie A, Merola JF, et al. Patient perceptions of psoriatic disease in the united states: results from the us subgroup of the Understanding Psoriatic Disease Leveraging Insights for Treatment (UPLIFT) survey. Poster presented at: Maui Derm Connect; January 25-29, 2021; Maui, HI.
