Dyshidrosis is a risk factor for herpes zoster.
BACKGROUND
Endogenous factors such as stress-induced immune system reactivity were also associated with dyshidrosis. Herpes zoster (HZ) incidence has been demonstrated to increase with immune deficiencies. Therefore, a relationship between dyshidrosis and HZ may exist.


OBJECTIVE
This study investigated whether there is an association between dyshidrosis and HZ.


METHODS
We conducted a population-based cohort study by using Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID2000) records from 1996 to 2011. The dyshidrosis group comprised 8488 patients with newly identified dyshidrosis and no history of HZ prior to diagnosis of dyshidrosis. For the non-dyshidrosis group, each dyshidrosis patient frequency matched according to age (5-year intervals), sex and index date year with four controls selected randomly from the LHID2000.


RESULTS
After adjustments for confounding risk factors, the hazard ratio for HZ in the dyshidrosis group was 1.31 compared with the non-dyshidrosis group. Regardless of comorbidities, patients with dyshidrosis had a higher risk of HZ than did controls without dyshidrosis. Patients with more hospital visits that were due to dyshidrosis had a higher risk of HZ.


CONCLUSIONS
Dyshidrosis is strongly associated with HZ. Patients treated for dyshidrosis should be warned of HZ risk.
Department of Medical Education and Research, Puli Christian Hospital, Puli, Taiwan.|Department of Optometry, Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taichung, Taiwan.|Center for General Education, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Taichung, Taiwan.|The General Education Center, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan.|Department of General Education, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan.
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CY
Hsu
Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
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YC
Wang
Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Science and School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.|Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
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CH
Kao
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D011146:Eczema, Dyshidrotic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006562:Herpes Zoster / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology