Does psoriasis impact BIPOC patients differently than white patients?

Dr. Michelle Henry explains how BIPOC patients can be under diagnosed or not diagnosed at all when it come to psoriasis care.

Transcript

00:00

Hey, Dr. Henry. Does psoriasis impact Black and Brown patients differently than white patients? [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:13

That's a great question. So psoriasis is a little bit less common in patients of color. So we look at white patients, about 3.6%

00:20

of white patients report psoriasis, whereas we only see about 1.9% of Black patients and 1.6% of Hispanic patients reporting psoriasis.

00:29

However, it's important to keep in mind, these numbers may not really present the full picture because a lot of the psoriasis patients of color

00:35

might be underdiagnosed or underrecognized, especially to those who have an untrained eye. What's also interesting is that, although the numbers are lower,

00:44

the severity is often reported to be higher. So if we look at Asian and Hispanic patients, they're more likely to report severe or very severe symptoms

00:52

when compared to white patients. Further, the effect on the quality of life is a little bit different as well. We look at white patients, about 54% of white patients

01:02

will report that it really affects their quality of life. 72% of patients of color report that it affects their quality of life.

01:08

A part of that is because it's underrecognized. We often describe psoriasis as being that salmon pink, inflamed scale that we're seeing in those patients.

01:16

When we look at patients of color, sometimes it's gray, sometimes it looks more purple. And I think that leads to underdiagnosis,

01:23

a delay in diagnosis, and these patients can often suffer a lot more. And that's why I think conversations like this are so important.

01:30

Educating not only physicians but also patients will overall reduce that burden of psoriasis to make sure we have an early diagnosis

01:37

and really improve the quality of life for all patients. [AUDIO LOGO]