Cigarette smoking, obesity and alcohol use among patients with prurigo nodularis

In a cross-sectional analysis of data from the Health Improvement Network, an anonymized medical record database representative of the UK population, we compared the rates of smoking, obesity and alcohol use among 6090 patients with prurigo nodularis (PN) against 1 : 1 age, sex and ethnicity-matched healthy controls. We demonstrate that patients with PN have significantly higher odds of being a former or current smoker, overweight or obese, or heavy alcohol users. The presence of these lifestyle risk factors may compound multi-axis systemic inflammation known to drive PN, either predisposing patients to PN or accelerating progression of the condition.