Study finds early puberty linked to higher risk for HS

TOPLINE:

The prevalence of early onset of puberty was higher in children with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) than those without HS, in a study that found precocious puberty increased the odds of developing HS by more than twofold.

METHODOLOGY:

• In this case-control study, the researchers used data from the Explorys database, which comprises more than 40 US healthcare networks.
• They evaluated 1605 patients with HS (aged 15-18 years; median age, 17 years; 81.9% women) and 180,933 individuals without HS (aged 10-16 years; median age, 13 years; 49.5% women) between March 2017 and February 2020.
• Patients had at least one healthcare encounter and 12 months of observable person-time.
• The primary outcome was a diagnosis of precocious puberty.

TAKEAWAY:

• In total, 40 patients with HS (2.5%) and 2120 participants without HS (1.2%) were diagnosed with precocious puberty.
• Precocious puberty was associated with more than a twofold higher risk for HS (odds ratio [OR], 2.16; 95% CI, 1.57-2.96).
• The risk remained significant after adjusting for cofactors, such as demographic factors and body mass index (OR, 2.13; 95% CI, 1.53-2.99).

IN PRACTICE:

The study results are similar to the findings of a small European study and “offer additional evidence to support the role of sex hormones in the pathophysiology of HS,” the authors wrote. “Further exploration of the role of sex hormones and their dysregulation in the pathogenesis of HS is needed,” they added.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Nicole Mastacouris, MS, of the Department of Dermatology, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, New Hyde Park, New York, and was published online on September 18 in JAMA Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS:

Limitations included the inability to establish the timing of the association between precocious puberty and HS, possible surveillance bias leading to higher detection of HS in patients with precocious puberty, and the risk for misclassification of precocious puberty because of the use of unvalidated International Classification of Diseases codes.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was partly funded by an education grant from AbbVie. One author received personal fees and grants from various pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.