Poor Sleep Associated With Myocardial Infarction Risk in Patients With Psoriasis

Poor sleep quantity has a statistically significant association with a history of myocardial infarction among patients with psoriasis, according to research presented at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), held from March 25 to 29, 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts..

The findings are based on data from the 2020 National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) Annual Survey.

Invitations to participate were emailed to patients who had contacted the NPF from 2018 to 2020, were aged 18 years and older, reported a physician’s diagnosis of psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis, and had a valid email address. The survey included questions about demographics, psoriasis diagnosis and severity, comorbidities, and sleep quantity.

The researchers conducted multivariate logistic regression analysis, with sleep hours as the predictor variable and history of myocardial infarction as the outcome. They controlled for prespecified covariates, including age, sex, body mass index, race, annual household income, psoriasis severity, presence of psoriatic arthritis, and diagnosis of sleep apnea.

A total of 1405 individuals completed the survey. Among the cohort, 10.6% were aged younger than 35 years, 24.0% were aged 35 to 49 years, 39.7% were aged 50 to 64 years, and 25.7% were aged 65 years and older. About 87% of participants were White, and 54.4% were women.

A statistically significant association was found between sleep quantity and a history of myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR], 0.66; 95% CI, 0.49-0.91; P =.010) in patients with psoriasis, after adjustment for covariates. Patients with psoriasis had a 34% decrease in odds of having a history of myocardial infarction for each hour increase in average nightly sleep.

Male sex (OR 2.85; 95% CI, 1.21-7.36; P = .007) and older age (OR 1.07; 95% CI, 1.03-1.11; P <.001) were associated with a greater odds of myocardial infarction. Psoriasis severity (OR 1.01; 95% CI, 0.99-1.03; P =.390) and psoriatic arthritis (OR 1.08; 95% CI, 0.48-2.41; P =.857) were not significant predictors of myocardial infarction in the multivariate model.

“More research is needed to further evaluate the association of sleep with cardiovascular disease in individuals living with psoriasis, its directionality, and whether interventions aimed to improve sleep could lead to meaningful improvements in health and quality of life,” stated the investigators.

Disclosure: Some of the study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of authors’ disclosures.

Reference

Bhutani T, Gondo G, Hakimi M, et al. Evaluating the association between sleep and myocardial infarction in patients with psoriasis. Presented at: the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) 2022 Annual Meeting; March 25-29, 2022. Poster 34284.