People with rosacea at higher risk of upper gastrointestinal disorders, study finds

Israel: In a study published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, researchers found that patients with rosacea have a greater frequency of upper gastrointestinal (GI) diseases than healthy people. Yi JZ and the team conducted this study in order to see the relationship between the occurrence of rosacea and upper gastrointestinal disorders.

Patients diagnosed with rosacea from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Clinical Data Repository between December 2010 and December 2020 were included in the case-control research. During the same time period, each patient was matched 1:4 with randomly selected control subjects in terms of sex, age, and race/ethnicity. Esophagitis, Barrett esophagus, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), Helicobacter pylori infection, gastritis, IBS, nondiabetic gastroparesis, and diverticulitis were among the outcomes.

The chi-squared test was performed to evaluate the prevalence of GI diagnoses in healthy people and rosacea patients, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to compute the odds ratio and 95 percent confidence interval after adjusting for possible variables.

The results of this study stated as follow:

1. There were 3485 people in the rosacea group (mean age 59.6 years; 68.4% women; 85.2% White).

2. There were 13,940 people in the control group (mean age 59.4 years; 68.4% women; 85.2% White).

3. In comparison to the control group, patients with rosacea had a greater prevalence of GERD, gastritis, esophagitis, SIBO, Barrett esophagus, nondiabetic gastroparesis, Crohn disease, IBS, and diverticulitis.

4. Barrett esophagus (aOR, 1.69), IBS (aOR, 1.62), nondiabetic gastroparesis (aOR, 1.49), esophagitis (aOR, 1.30), SIBO (aOR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1. (aOR, 1.16).

5. Even after controlling for additional confounders such as other GI diseases and doxycycline exposure, which can cause IBS-like symptoms, the researchers discovered a substantial link between rosacea and IBS.

In conclusion, future research is needed to confirm the relationships shown here and to create innovative techniques to manage rosacea patients' skin condition as well as their GI comorbidities, given the rising evidence of the gut-skin axis in the etiology of rosacea.

Reference:

Yi JZ, Lukac D, Pagani K, Li S, McGee JS. Rosacea and upper gastrointestinal disorders: a case-control study from a large, urban academic centre. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. Published online October 17, 2021. doi:10.1111/jdv.17758