, according to Sara Wertenteil and her colleagues in the department of dermatology at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
Using data collected by IBM Watson Health, the study authors examined a total of 48,050 adults with HS and 16.9 million adults in the general U.S. population. In this study population, 15.2% of adults with HS had acne, compared with only 2.9% of adults in the general population (P less than .0001), the investigators wrote in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
After adjusting for age, sex, obesity, smoking status, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) status, the odds ratio of adults with HS having acne was 4.51 over those without HS (95% confidence interval, 4.40-4.63). In all subgroups measured (male; female; adults aged 18-44 years, 45-64 years, and 65 years and older; white; nonwhite; obese; nonobese; smoker; nonsmoker; positive for PCOS; non-PCOS) adults with HS were significantly more likely to have acne. The strongest association was in patients who were aged 65 years and older (odds ratio, 10.14; 95% CI, 8.97-11.46).
“Patients with HS have an increased prevalence of [acne vulgaris]. Clinicians treating HS patients should be aware of this burden and its potential implications including a further impact on quality of life. Management strategies should include consideration of both conditions, either with treatments that have overlapping efficacy, or with concomitant therapies,” the authors concluded.
The study was sponsored in part by AbbVie. One coauthor reported having served as an advisor for AbbVie, Pfizer, Janssen, and Asana Biosciences.
SOURCE: Wertentiel S et al. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2018 Oct 1. doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2018.09.040.