Incidence and Prognosis of COVID-19 in Patients with Psoriasis: A Multicenter Prospective Study from the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey

Abstract

COVID-19 infection can have a poor prognosis, especial-ly in patients with chronic diseases and those receiving immunosup-pressive or immunomodulating therapies.This study aimed to investigate the severity of COVID-19 infection in patients with psoriasis and compare the infection severity for sys-temic treatments and comorbidities.We conducted a study in the dermatology clinics of five different centers in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. Four hundred and eighty-eight patients were included, and 22.5% were confirmed as having COVID-19 infection.In our study, the frequency of hospitalization rates due to COVID-19 infection were similar (15.4%, 25.9% respectively) in patients receiv-ing biological treatment and receiving non-biological systemic treat-ment (P=0.344). Hospitalization rates were higher in patients with hypertension, androgenetic alopecia, and acitretin use (P=0.043, P=0.028, P=0.040).In conclusion, current biologic treatments and non-biologic system-ic treatments in patients with psoriasis did not appear to increase the risk of the severe form of COVID-19, except for acitretin.