OBJECTIVES: To identify differences in patient reported outcomes (PROs) between sexes in patients with psoriasis over time.

METHODS: Data were drawn from three Adelphi Psoriasis Disease Specific Programmes™, real-world cross-sectional studies of dermatologists and consulting patients in the United States in 2016, 2018 and 2022. In each study, around 80 dermatologists provided demographic and clinical data for their next 1-10 consulting patients aged ≥18 years with a confirmed psoriasis diagnosis, not currently participating in a clinical trial. The same patients completed a voluntary questionnaire containing attitudinal questions, the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI) PROs. Non-missing data were analyzed. Fisher’s exact tests were used to compare women and men in binary categorical variables, and t-tests for numeric variables.

RESULTS: Overall, 283, 352 and 206 patient-reported questionnaires were collected in 2016, 2018 and 2022, respectively; 44%, 49% and 51% of the patient sample were women, 77%, 80% and 77% were identified by their dermatologist as white/Caucasian and mean age (SD) was 46.9 (15.4), 43.4 (15.5) and 45.2 (15.7) years, respectively.

Women reported higher burden compared to men in 2016. A lower proportion of women reported no pain/discomfort (57% women versus 74% men, p=0.004), while a higher proportion reported severe skin itch/soreness/pain/stinging (24% versus 11%, p=0.006) or joint pain/stiffness/mobility in 2016 (44% versus 28%, p=0.007). Mean DLQI and WPAI activity impairment scores were also greater in women in 2016 (DLQI: 5.95 versus 3.78, p=0.001; WPAI: 20.39 versus 14.75, p=0.041). Any observed differences between sexes in these five PROs were not statistically significant in 2018 and 2022.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that women were more burdened in 2016 compared to men, a trend not observable in 2018 and 2022. This indicates a reduction in the gap between sexes in psoriasis over time.