A PROSPECTIVE study carried out by scientists from Jiangsu, China has revealed that individuals living with both diabetes and psoriasis face a significantly increased risk of all-cause and cancer-related mortality, compared with those without either condition. These findings highlight the potential synergistic impact of these two chronic inflammatory diseases on long-term survival outcomes.
All-Cause and Cancer-Specific Mortality Higher in Patients with Diabetes and Psoriasis
In this new study representative of the U.S. population, researchers analysed data of 16,852 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), and the survival of these individuals was examined using the Kaplan-Meier method and a weighted Cox proportional hazards model. Models were adjusted for factors that include age, sex, race, BMI, smoking status and other comorbidities. This allowed for accurate interpretation of results. In this adjusted model, individuals with both diabetes and psoriasis revealed a significant increase in all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.76, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04-3.00) and cancer-specific mortality (HR: 2.90, 95% CI: 1.28–6.54). However, cardiovascular mortality did not significantly increase with both chronic conditions present (HR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.18–4.35).
Notably, exploratory analyses carried out by the authors also indicate a dose-response relationship between psoriasis severity and cardiovascular mortality, though this finding requires further investigation.
Future Directions: Understanding Mechanisms and Optimising Patient Management
However, the authors highlight that due to the observational design of this study causality cannot be established from the correlation. Further research would be required to understand the biological mechanisms that underpin these associations. Future research should also include detailed measures of disease severity, treatment modalities and cause-specific mortality, particularly cancer subtypes and cardiovascular outcomes. This deeper understanding of psoriasis and diabetes comorbidity will improve clinical outcomes of these conditions and reduce premature death through optimised screening, diagnosis and management strategies.
Reference
Liu N, Chen X. The co-impact of diabetes and psoriasis on mortality risk for all causes and specific causes. Sci Rep. 2025;15:37463. DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-21189-x.
