Global burden of skin disease

Skin diseases cause the major healthcare burden globally. It can be reduced via researches centered on skin diseases with the highest reported disability-adjusted life years.

A study evaluated the description of dermatologic conditions with the greatest disability-adjusted life years in dermatology literature to recognize fields that could benefit from a greater research focus.

• Referring to the 2013 Global Burden of Disease, the top 10 skin disorders were identified by their respective disability-adjusted life years using previous studies.
• Referring 2019 h-index the top 5 dermatology journals were also identified.
• Individual skin disease terms were utilized for PubMed search of each journal.
• From 2015 to 2020, all indexed publications about each disease were listed and contrasted with the total publications for each journal surveyed.

The following observations were made-

• 19,727 published papers were found in the 5 journals from 2015 to 2020.
• Melanoma stood in the eighth highest position in disability-adjusted life years but held the highest representation in the literature, followed by psoriasis and dermatitis.
• Melanoma, psoriasis and dermatitis accounted for 29.69% of the total publications.
• While the remaining 7 skin conditions accounted for 6.79% of the total publications.

The void in the literature related to the top skin diseases, contributing to the global disease burden, has been identified by this study. The study also highlights the need for focused research on less-studied skin diseases to help reduce the global burden of skin disease.

Source: Pulsipher KJ, Szeto MD, Rundle CW, Presley CL, Laughter MR, Dellavalle RP. Global Burden of Skin Disease Representation in the Literature: Bibliometric Analysis, JMIR Dermatol 2021;4(2):e29282doi: 10.2196/29282