Sex-Specific Differences in Psoriatic Arthritis Save

A systematic review of published literature on psoriatic arthritis (PsA), clinical features, disease activity, and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) shows generally higher levels of disease activity in women, compared to men with PsA.

A metanalysis of published reports on adults with PsA, clinical variables and outcomes identified 31 publications of 27 unique studies.

While they found that women had higher rates of peripheral disease activity (ie, higher tender joint counts), men were more likely to have more axial disease and a greater skin disease burden with higher PASI and BSA scores.

The most often used PRO in psoriasis studies, the Dermatology Life Quality Index, was no different between the sexes, yet other PROs (ie, pain and fatigue) were worse in women.  Lastly, women had poorer treatment outcomes, as indicated by ACR response rates and the number of patients achieving minimal disease activity (MDA).

Reasons underlying these gender differences were not apparent and warrant futher study.