ABSTRACT
Background: Jet-lag may affect air-travelers crossing at least two time-zones and has several health-care implications. It occurs when the human biological rhythms are out of synch with respect to the day-night cycle at the country destination. Its effect in psoriasis is missing. We aimed to evaluate the effect of Jet-lag in psoriatic patients’ management. Methods: This is a prospective observational study that enrolled psoriatic patients that underwent a flight: patients who experienced jet-lag were compared to patients who did not experience jet-lag. Before the flight, a dermatologist recorded clinical and demographical data with particular attention to Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) and Disease Activity in Psoriatic Arthritis (DAPSA). Patients performed Self-Administered Psoriasis Area Severity Index (SAPASI), the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and the pruritus Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores. After the flight, patients completed the SAPASI, DLQI and pruritus-VAS scores. Results: The sample recruited comprised of 70 psoriatic patients aged 42.4 ± 9.7 years (median 42.5 years). Thirty (42.9%) were males, mean BMI was 25.5 ± 2.2 kg/m2. Average disease duration was 15.2 ± 7.1 years, and 20 (28.6%) subjects had developed PsA. Average hours of flight were 5.4 ± 3.5 (median 3.5 h), with 34 (48.6%) subjects reporting jet-lag. At the multivariate regression analysis, the change in the SAPASI score resulted correlated with jet-lag (regression coefficient 1.63, p = .0092), as well the change in the DLQI score (regression coefficient = 1.73, p = .0009), but no change on the pruritus VAS scale was found. Conclusions: The present study suggests that jet-lag may influence disease severity and DLQI scores, but not itch in psoriatic patients.
Authors Contributions
Conceptualization, G.D., N.L.B., S.G., V.K.C. and C.M.S.; methodology, N.L.B. and G.D.; software, N.L.B.; validation, S.G., V.K.C. and C.M.S.; formal analysis, N.L.B; investigation, G.D., A.P., P.M., P.D.M.P., R.R.Z.C., D.T. and A.W.; resources, S.G., V.K.C., C.M.S., and M.A.; data curation, G.D., S.G., V.K.C., C.M.S., A.P., P.M., P.D.M.P., R.R.Z.C., D.T., A.W. and M.A.; writing—original draft preparation, G.D., N.L.B., G.D., N.L.B., S.G., V.K.C., C.M.S., A.P., P.M., P.D.M.P., R.R.Z.C., D.T., A.W.; writing—review and editing, G.D., N.L.B., S.G., V.K.C., C.M.S., A.P., P.M., P.D.M.P., R.R.Z.C., D.T., A.W. and M.A; visualization, N.L.B.; supervision, S.G., V.K.C., C.M.S., M.A.; project administration, A.P., P.M., P.D.M.P., R.R.Z.C., D.T. and A.W.; funding acquisition, M.A.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Supplementary Materials
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