Inpatient hospital care for psoriasis: a vanishing practice in the United States.
BACKGROUND
Inpatient hospital care was a traditional approach to treat severe psoriasis. Since 1980, only modest innovations in psoriasis therapy have been introduced, but regulation and financing of inpatient hospital care have changed greatly.


OBJECTIVE
We documented changes in the use of inpatient care in acute care hospitals for psoriasis in a cohort of individuals with severe psoriasis and nationally.


METHODS
Using interviews, we quantified hospitalizations for psoriasis and other reasons among the PUVA Follow-up Study cohort. We used National Hospital Discharge Survey data to determine national trends in hospitalization rates.


RESULTS
In 2 decades, national rates of hospitalization primarily for psoriasis decreased more than 80%. Among our cohort of persons with severe psoriasis, the age-adjusted rate of hospital days for psoriasis decreased more than 60% during this period.


CONCLUSIONS
Currently, hospitalization in acute care hospitals is seldom used to care for persons with psoriasis.
Stern
Robert S
RS
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA. rstern@caregroup.harvard.edu
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011701:PUVA Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000639:trends*; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D011565:Psoriasis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States