Exploring the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 on psoriasis patients: knowledge, clinical profiles, and socioeconomic challenges in an Egyptian tertiary care facility

Background With emerging new variants, the threat of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is far from being over. The burden of COVID-19 on patients with psoriasis is still lacking data. Objective To elucidate the clinical characteristics, and socioeconomic burden of the COVID-19 pandemic together with patients’ knowledge in a cohort of psoriatic patients. Methods A semi-structured retrospective questionnaire was designed and applied to 239 psoriatic patients from January 2023 to June 2023. The questions discussed patients’ follow-up during the pandemic, their adherence to treatment, socioeconomic burden, psoriasis exacerbation, and patients’ awareness about their immune status, vaccination, and the effect of immunosuppressive therapy. Results The results showed that 52.7% of the patients could contact their physician easily for follow-up during the pandemic. Total 71.1% of the patients were receiving treatment at that time. 39.7% of the patients experienced loss or problems at work due to the closure. 44.8% of the patients were using all types of safety precautions. 40.9% got infected with COVID-19 while 9.6% reported hospital admission. Only respiratory diseases and the type of psoriasis showed a significant difference in the COVID-19 positive and negative groups ( P >0.05). More than 50% of patients answered the awareness questions with ‘I do not know’. Conclusion The authors report an increased rate of COVID-19 infection in psoriasis patients in the studied cohort as compared with similar studies from Europe. Neither the immunosuppressive medications nor the co-morbidities increased the susceptibility to COVID-19 infection. Patients with psoriasis still have misconceptions about the nature of their immune status in psoriasis.