People with psoriasis have a higher risk of developing diabetes, according to new research.

Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory disease that affects approximately 125 million people worldwide.

A new study of the entire Danish population confirms previous reports of increased risk of diabetes mellitus in patients with psoriasis and shows that this risk increases with the severity of psoriasis.

Psoriasis, atherosclerosis, and early steps in the development of diabetes mellitus are signaled by chronic inflammation.

For the study in Denmark, more than 4 million people, including approximately 50,000 patients with psoriasis, were followed for 13 years.

Experts discovered that, compared to people without psoriasis, patients with mild psoriasis were 1.5 times more likely to acquire new-onset diabetes mellitus. Meanwhile, patients with severe psoriasis were more than twice as likely to acquire the condition.

"The major conclusion of the study was that psoriasis was associated with increased risk of diabetes mellitus and the risk was highest in patients with severe psoriasis," said Dr Ole Ahlehoff from Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.

"The results add to current evidence of increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease in patients with psoriasis," he added. "More needs to be done to increase awareness in this large group of patients on what steps they can take to decrease their risk factors for cardiovascular disease."

According to Dr Ahlehoff, studies are urgently required to examine the impact of aggressive psoriasis treatment on cardiometabolic outcomes."

The study was presented at ESC Congress 2012 in Munich, Germany.

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