MedWire News: Researchers have identified key lifestyle and stress factors that could contribute to the onset of psoriasis.
Although a genetic basis for psoriasis exists, previous research has indicated that environmental triggers may exacerbate symptoms, note Slavenka Jankovic (University of Belgrade , Serbia) and colleagues.
They looked at the association between psoriasis and smoking habits, alcohol consumption, family history of psoriasis and stressful life events in 110 psoriasis patients compared with 200 controls without the skin disease.
The results, published in The Journal of Dermatology, show that psoriasis mainly affects urban residents and those who have been divorced, at odds ratios (ORs) of 3.61 and 5.69, respectively, compared with controls.
After taking into consideration potential confounding factors such as age, body mass index and duration of disease, risk factors independently associated with psoriasis were exposure to environmental tobacco smoke at home (OR=2.29), alcohol consumption (OR=2.55), family history of psoriasis (OR=33.96) and change in work conditions, namely a new company division, new boss or major reorganisation (OR=8.34).
The researchers also note that there were some gender differences in risk factors for psoriasis. A family history of psoriasis appeared to be a stronger risk factor for men than for women, with ORs of 30.39 and 16.99, respectively.
Also, the increased risk for psoriasis associated with exposure to environmental tobacco smoke at home was greater for men than for women, at ORs of 2.44 and 1.48, respectively.
The opposite was true for exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in the work place, however, which increased the risk for psoriasis in men more than three-fold, whereas it had no effect in women.
Jankovic and colleagues recognize the difficulties in establishing a causal relationship between factors such as cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption on psoriasis, but stress that this “must not conceal the reality of this association and its impact on the psoriatic patients’ health.”
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