Background: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the skin reported to be associated with systemic comorbidities.
Objectives: To investigate the association between psoriasis and coeliac disease (CD).
Methods: Patients with psoriasis were compared with age- and sex-matched controls regarding the prevalence of CD in a case-control study. chi(2) and t-tests were used for univariate analysis and a logistic regression model was used for multivariate analysis. The study was performed utilizing the medical database of Clalit Health Services.
Results: The study included 12,502 patients with psoriasis aged > 20 years and 24,285 age- and sex-matched controls. The prevalence of CD in patients with psoriasis was increased compared with the prevalence in controls (0.29% and 0.11%, respectively, P < 0.001). In a multivariate analysis psoriasis was associated with CD (odds ratio 2.73, 95% confidence interval 1.65-4.53).
Conclusions: Patients with psoriasis have a greater prevalence of CD than matched controls. Recent studies showed a possibility of undiagnosed CD among patients with psoriasis. Therefore, physicians treating patients with psoriasis should be aware of this possible association.