A study has revealed that centralised body fat is more strongly linked to an increased risk of psoriasis than overall body fat.
Researchers led by King’s College London found that the location of body fat, rather than just overall body mass, plays a critical role in the likelihood of developing psoriasis. Women with high levels of abdominal fat were most at risk.
The researchers hope that the findings, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, could help to improve early risk prediction and guide personalised prevention strategies for psoriasis.
As global obesity rates continue to rise, the importance of understanding how different patterns of body fat influence inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis becomes increasingly significant.
Using data from the UK Biobank, the researchers studied 336,806 participants of White British ancestry, including 9,305 individuals with a diagnosis of psoriasis. Twenty-five different measurements of fat were taken, including body measurements and advanced imaging techniques, to differentiate between types of fat, such as visceral and subcutaneous fat, and to record the precise locations of fat within the body.
The researchers found that people with more fat around their waist and abdomen are more likely to have psoriasis. Out of the five measures most strongly associated with the development of psoriasis, four were measures of central body fat. These include the waist-to-hip ratio, abdominal fat ratio, total abdominal adipose tissue index, and waist circumference.
Among the various methods for measuring total adiposity, the researchers found that the percentage of body fat, as measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), had the strongest association with psoriasis, indicating that higher overall body fat increases the likelihood of developing psoriasis.
Professor Michael Simpson, Professor of Genetics at King’s and co-author of the study, added: ‘Previous work has shown that people with psoriasis who carry a particular gene variant, called HLA-C06:02, tend to have lower overall body fat. However, our analysis demonstrates that abdominal fat increases psoriasis risk regardless of whether or not people have this gene variant. This suggests that central body fat is a causal risk factor for psoriasis, no matter your genetic background.’
Future studies will examine a broader cohort of ethnicities and aim to validate the findings and enhance risk prediction across diverse groups.
This article was originally published by our sister publication Nursing in Practice.
