Regional difference in disease burden among patients with psoriatic arthritis: a multi-center study

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) has been defined as an inflammatory arthritis associated with psoriasis. The disease activity can be evaluated using many scales in patients with PsA. There is a great temperature difference between geographic region in Turkey. For example,the average annual air temperature in Erzurum (one of the Eastern Anatolian cities) is 5.7° C whereas in Antalya (one of the Mediterranean region cities) average temperature is 18.7° C. Furthermore, altitude of Eastern Anatolian cities is higher than Mediterranean cities. The aim of this study was to assess whether there are regional differences in disease burden in patients with PsA.