title: Relationship between obesity and other risk factors and skin disease among adult Saudi population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Obesity is accused for a wide spectrum of dermatologic diseases; no previous follow-up study has been conducted to investigate these conditions in adult male and female Saudi population.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe obesity pattern using BMI and to assess the association between obesity and certain skin diseases among adult Saudi population.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective cohort study of 2-year duration was conducted. The study sample was randomly selected from dermatology clinics at Qassim. Male cohorts were 61 obese adults and 48 nonobese adults. Female cohorts were 32 obese adults and 36 nonobese adults. Measurement of BMI, waist-hip ratio, fasting glucose, blood pressure, and dermatological examination was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Skin disease incidence was significantly increased among exposed rather than nonexposed cohorts with a relative risk of 2.3 in male cohort and 2.3 in female cohort. Acanthosis nigricans and striae distensae incidence increased in exposed men and women with highly significant difference from nonexposed groups. Skin tag incidence significantly increased in the exposed male cohorts only but not the female cohort. Hirsutism, dry skin, pruritis, and planter keratosis all showed nonsignificant differences. The most frequently reported infections in obese men were tinea pedis (18%), intertrigo (14.7%), and bacterial folliculitis (13.1%) with significant difference. BMI was the only risk factor that regresses on skin disease occurrence in study groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study linked incidence of acanthosis nigricans and striae distensae to obesity in both female and male adult population but showed sex difference for other skin diseases, which raised many questions and requires further longer duration follow-up studies.
authors.affiliation: aDepartment of Public Health, Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt bDepartments of Public Health cDermatology, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ghada M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Khalil
authors.forename: Hani A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Al Shobaili
authors.forename: Abdullateef
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alzolibani
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al Robaee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000097:blood; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology