Study: Family history, frequent sunburns linked to rosacea

SAN FRANCISCO While the exact cause of rosacea, a chronic skin condition that causes redness, swelling and vascular abnormalities, is unknown, research has found that family history and a higher incidence of sunburns are associated with the skin condition.

The research could improve the general understanding of the disease, which is most commonly found on the face, and affects an estimated 14 million Americans.

The findings were presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology on March 5.

“This study was building on previous photo database work that we had done in which we looked at photos of 3,000 people with and without rosacea to try to determine the prevalence of rosacea in certain populations and some of the factors that seemed to be associated with it,” said dermatologist Alexa Boer Kimball, MD, MPH, FAAD, associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “We wanted to see whether we could validate some of these initial findings, as well as explore whether rosacea was predictive of other systemic conditions that might be related - similar to the link between severe cases of psoriasis and other medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.”

The case-controlled study was built on a photo study conducted with 65 rosacea subjects (age 24 to 86) and 65 controls without rosacea (age 18 to 78). The subjects underwent a facial skin exam, completed a questionnaire and had their height, weight and blood pressure measured.

Comparing the data for the new study groups, Kimball found that rosacea subjects were three times more likely to have a family member with rosacea compared with the control group. Specifically, 34% of rosacea subjects reported a family member with rosacea versus 10.5% of control subjects. When answering questions about their dermatological and medical conditions, rosacea subjects had significantly higher rates of blistering sunburns than control subjects (44% versus 5.2%, respectively).

In families with a history of rosacea, Kimball advises parents to protect children from sun exposure with a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 15 or higher and to practice other sun-safe behaviors in order to minimize the risk of sunburns.