OBJECTIVES: Psoriasis (PS) is a common, chronic skin disease with an average prevalence in Latin America of 2.14%. The objective of this study is to conduct a systematic review on the humanistic and economic burden of psoriasis in the four most populous Latin American countries, namely Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

METHODS: PubMed/Medline, Web of Science and grey literature databases (BASE, MediGraphic and PDF Search Engine) were searched for publications in English, Spanish or Portuguese from January 1^st 2003 to July 31^st 2018.

RESULTS: Out of 565 records, 13 met the predetermined inclusion criteria. Ten studies described the health related quality of life (HRQoL) of individuals with PS (7 Brazilian; 2 Colombian; 1 Mexican) and showed that patients with PS had a lower HRQoL measured with the SF-12 questionnaire compared to the general population or to patients suffering from 24 other dermatological diseases. As expected HRQoL also decreased with increasing levels of disease severity. Six studies were identified that evaluated work productivity among patients with PS (5 Brazilian, 1 Mexican). The 2011 Brazilian National Health and Wellness Survey, found that PS patients reported significantly more often presenteeism (30.4% vs. 14.8%), activity impairment (36.5% vs. 20.9%) and work productivity loss (34.0% vs. 18.9%) than the general population (all P<0.05). Recently another study found comparable rates of absenteeism, presenteeism and activity impairment (9.4%, 28.7% and 31%) for Mexico. Three Brazilian studies were identified that focused on medical resource utilization by PS patients, showing high direct costs compared to other common diseases.

CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to the abundance of data available in other regions of the world, this study highlights the scarcity of research to fully understand the unmet need of the socio-economic burden of psoriasis in Latin American countries.