OBJECTIVES: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease affecting 2.5 million people in France. Although the literature shows increasingly perceptible links between psoriasis and psychological disorders, the consequences of these comorbidities on patients’ daily lives have been difficult to analyze extensively since this usually requires the recruitment of patients to answer a structured questionnaire. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine, on a large scale, the alterations in the quality of life at work of patients with psoriasis.

METHODS: Retrospective observational research combining two sources of real-world data. The first source was THIN®, an ambulatory medicalized Real-World and GRPD compliant database in France, that incorporates claims data. The second source was messages collected from social networks in France by Brandwatch®, the GDPR compliant, social medial analytic tool. An automated language processing algorithm was used to select messages.

RESULTS: The study showed that psoriasis patients have a higher propensity to take sick leave during the study period compared to non-psoriasis patients. Two main reasons for sick leave were highlighted: psychological disorders and rheumatic pain. In addition, analysis of the social network testimonies identified several recurrent themes in the messages about professional activities. Patients mentioned a vicious circle of work and the progression/exacerbation of the disease, and said the symptoms become too much of a burden and require sick leave.

CONCLUSIONS: By combining 2 sources of real-word data—structured quantitative data from the THIN® database and unstructured qualitative data from social networks—this study offers new insights into the nature of the suffering of psoriasis patients, particularly in their professional lives.