Smoking Habits Amongst Patients with Psoriasis and the Effect of Smoking on Clinical and Treatment-associated Characteristics: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Psoriasis is a multifactorial, chronic inflammatory skin disease where genetic and environmental factors play a role in the pathogenesis. Smoking is one of the critical environmental factors triggering psoriasis.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to analyse the smoking habits of patients with psoriasis and the effect of smoking on disease characteristics.

Methods: One hundred and thirty-three patients who applied to the department of Dermatological and Venereal Diseases, Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, between May 2018 and May 2019 and were diagnosed with psoriasis participated in the study. Clinical, demographical, and treatment-related characteristics, and smoking habits of patients were recorded.

Results: Sixty-seven point six percent of psoriasis patients were smokers. The presence of moderate to severe psoriasis (P = .028), nail involvement (P = .004), administration of systemic treatment (P = .024) and additional cardiovascular disease (P = .038) frequencies was higher in smokers compared to non-smokers. Besides, a positive correlation was observed between the amount of smoking and psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) (P = .003; r = .32).

Conclusions: Smoking has many negative effects on patients with psoriasis including higher PASI levels, increased frequency of nail involvement, and cardiovascular diseases. Questioning cigarette smoking in psoriatic patients and supporting smoking cessation may contribute to reducing the adverse impact of smoking on psoriasis.