Treatment patterns and clinical burden in adults and children with plaque psoriasis: a real-world survey

The study aimed to understand disease and treatment differences between adult and pediatric patients with psoriasis and identify opportunities for optimization of care. Data were drawn from the Adelphi Real World Psoriasis Disease Specific ProgrammeTM, a cross-sectional survey of physicians, and their pediatric (aged 4–17) and adult (aged ≥18) patients with psoriasis in the United States from August 2018–April 2020. Overall, 153 physicians reported data for 690 pediatric and 626 adult patients. Physicians reported that more pediatric patients were in remission (p < 0.001) and had a lower mean body surface area affected (p < 0.001) compared to adults. Physicians rated disease overall more severe in adult patients than pediatric (p < 0.001). Treatment patterns in pediatric and adult patients were significantly different (all p < 0.001), with topicals/phototherapy more commonly used in pediatric patients and conventional systemic and biologics more commonly used in adult patients throughout the treatment history. Overall, pediatric patients had significantly less severe disease than adults, but moderate/severe pediatric patients received fewer systemic therapies than in the adult moderate/severe cohort. Further research is needed to understand the use and effectiveness of biologics in the pediatric population, given the approval of newer biologics for pediatric use since the time of the survey.