Original articleRosacea is associated with chronic systemic diseases in a skin severity–dependent manner: Results of a case-control study
Section snippets
Study design
The study was a single-center case-control study with prospective recruitment of patients with rosacea and matched rosacea-free control subjects. The Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board approved the study (NA_00078020/October 18, 2012). Study procedures were conducted at the Johns Hopkins Department of Dermatology in Baltimore, MD, between November 2012 and August 2013.
Study cohort
Eligible cases were patients 18 years of age or older with a diagnosis of rosacea. Rosacea-free control subjects were
Participant characteristics
A total of 130 participants were recruited for the study, 65 patients and 65 control subjects. Each patient was matched to a control subject by age (P = .6), sex (P = 1.0), and race (P = 1.0). The mean (SD) age of cases was 50.6 (14.1) years, 43 (66.2%) were female, and 62 (95.4%) were Caucasian. Body mass index (P = .1), sun exposure (P = .3), smoking status (P = 1.0), alcohol intake (P = .5), and caffeine intake (P = .3) were comparable between cases and controls. Cases more frequently had a
Discussion
Our case-control study reports significant associations between rosacea and several systemic comorbidities. Patients with rosacea have significantly higher odds of experiencing allergies (airborne and food), respiratory diseases, GERD/other GI diseases, hypertension, metabolic diseases, urogenital diseases, and female hormone imbalance compared with age-, sex-, and race-matched control subjects originating from the same population. Moderate to severe rosacea13 is associated with hyperlipidemia,
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Funding sources: None.
Conflicts of interest: None declared.