Individuals who have psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis are at a significantly higher risk of also suffering bone fractures, particularly in their hip and vertebrae, according to a new study published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
“To our knowledge, these are the first population-based estimates of the risk for incident fracture and osteoporosis in patients with psoriasis and/or PsA [psoriatic arthritis] and the first longitudinal cohort study to address this issue,” wrote the authors of the study, led by Alexis Ogdie-Beatty, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (Ann Rheum Dis. 2017 Jan 16. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-210441).
Dr. Alexis R. Ogdie-Beatty
A total of 9,788 PsA and 158,323 psoriasis patients were included in the study, along with 39,306 RA patients and 821,834 individuals from the general population. Psoriasis patients were divided into groups classified as mild (n = 149,809) or severe (n = 8,514). The average age of each cohort ranged from nearly 47 years to almost 59 years, with all cohorts comprising mostly females, ranging from about 51% to 69%.
“We found that the risk for any fracture in patients with PsA and severe psoriasis was similar to RA [but] patients with PsA and psoriasis had an increased incidence of fracture compared with the general population by 7%-26%,” the authors explained. “The incidence of vertebral fracture was also increased in patients with severe psoriasis and while hip fracture was elevated in both psoriasis groups, it was only statistically significant in patients with mild psoriasis relative to matched controls after adjusting for risk factors for osteoporosis.”
Dr. Ogdie-Beatty and her colleagues found that all of the conditions conferred an elevated risk for fractures anywhere in the body when compared with the general population, reaching hazard ratios of 1.16 (95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.27) for people with PsA, 1.07 (95% CI, 1.05-1.10) for mild psoriasis, 1.26 for severe psoriasis (95% CI, 1.15-1.39), and 1.23 for RA (95% CI, 1.18-1.28). The risk for hip fractures was only significantly higher for mild (hazard ratio, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.04-1.22) and severe psoriasis (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.88-1.66), and RA (HR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.40-1.72). Individuals with PsA did not have a significantly higher risk for vertebral fractures (HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.66-1.72), whereas those with mild psoriasis (HR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.03-1.33), severe psoriasis (HR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.54-3.22), or RA did (HR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.30-1.80). Each of these models were fully adjusted for multiple different osteoporosis risk factors, although they were all commonly adjusted for age, sex, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, SSRI use, tricyclic antidepressant use, oral steroids, smoking, and categorical body mass index.
Individual coauthors disclosed receiving funding for their work from the National Institutes of Health, as well as grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Rheumatology Research Foundation. Three of the authors reported receiving payment for continuing medical education work related to psoriatic arthritis or psoriasis.