In this repository is the source code of the paper submitted at Clinical and Experimental Dermatology. The pre-processing of the data from the Chilean Waiting List Repository Database was made with pythonand the analysis was performed with R.
Summary. Psoriasis is a serious chronic inflammatory systemic disease, with its main symptoms occurring in the skin and joints. There is an important gap in the available information regarding the frequency and age of onset of psoriasis globally, with only 19% of the countries reporting data. There are no studies at the national level in Latin America describing psoriasis' incidence, that is to say, how many new cases happen yearly. This study, from Chile, aimed to estimate new cases of psoriasis during 2016-2017. We used an administrative database, referred to as the Waiting List Repository, to observe new cases of psoriasis in the public health system. In this database, the first referral made by general physicians due to the onset of psoriasis is recorded. We validated the referrals comparing it with the diagnosis made by the dermatologists that provided care to the referred patients. Overall, we found that the incidence of psoriasis in Chile was not very high, with some areas though showing figures similar to those observed in countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom. Also, most new cases corresponded to patients older than 55 years old, in contrast with the onset of psoriasis in Europe and Israel, where it has been observed two peaks of incidence, the first occurring in patients aged 20-30 years and the second at the sixth decade of life. We think our results are relevant since they are the first objective measurement that supports the hypothesis that psoriasis in Latin America is as burdensome as in other regions of the world. This data can help to guide research and policies in the region.