Background Psoriasis is an immune‐mediated skin disease, of which plaque psoriasis is the predominant form. This study aimed to understand the clinical characteristics of patients with moderate‐to‐severe plaque psoriasis who received systemic medications in a real‐world setting in China. Methods In this retrospective observational study, patients with moderate‐to‐severe plaque psoriasis were identified in electronic medical record databases from two study centers in China between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2021. Analyses were conducted on patients with a follow‐up period of ≥ 6 months. Primary objectives were to describe demographics, clinical characteristics, treatment experiences, and patterns of systemic treatments among this population. Secondary objectives were to describe healthcare resource utilization. Results Among 1102 eligible patients included in the systemic treatment analysis set, the mean (standard deviation SD) age was 44.9 (14.6) years, and 77% of patients were male. The most common comorbidity was allergic disease and skin disease (11%). Most patients received conventional systemic medications (84%), while few received biologic treatments (16%); 88% of patients discontinued systemic treatments within 90 days of the last prescription, 6% switched to a new systemic medication. The mean (SD) number of visits per patient‐year was 6.5 (5.2) for outpatient and 0.9 (not applicable NA) for inpatient. The mean (SD) duration of inpatient visits per patient‐year was 9.3 (NA) days, with a mean (SD) monthly direct medical cost of CYN 371.09 (741.56). Conclusions These results provide valuable insights for guiding decision‐making for patients with plaque psoriasis. The high treatment discontinuation rate reflects a challenge to disease management and suggests better treatment options are needed for this patient population in China.
Zhu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.