Sex‐ and age‐adjusted prevalence estimates of five chronic inflammatory skin diseases in France: results of the « OBJECTIFS PEAU » study.

Background: There are few population‐based studies assessing the prevalence of skin diseases. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of five chronic skin inflammatory diseases, i.e. atopic dermatitis (AD), psoriasis, alopecia areata (AA), vitiligo and hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in France, using validated self‐diagnostic questionnaires. Methods: Population‐based study using a representative sample of the French general population aged more than 15 years and sampling with replacement design. All participants were asked (ii) to fill in a specific questionnaire including socio‐demographic characteristics, (ii) to declare if they have been diagnosed with one or more skin problem or skin diseases during their life, and (iii) to fill in five validated self‐reported questionnaires for AD, psoriasis, AA, vitiligo and HS. Results: A total of 20.012 adult participants responded to the questionnaire of whom 9760 were men (48.8%) and 10.252 (51.2%) were women. We identified a prevalence of 4.65% for AD (931 individuals), 4.42% for psoriasis (885 individuals), 1.04% for AA (210 individuals), 0.46% for vitiligo (93 individuals) and 0.15% for HS (29 individuals), respectively. Limitations: Questionnaire‐based study and possible disease misclassifications. Conclusion: This is the largest population‐based study aiming to estimate the prevalence of five chronic skin inflammatory diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]