Adequate treatment and pain management are needed to limit work absence and reduce at-work productivity loss among patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), according to a research letter published in the May issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Kelsey R. van Straalen, M.D., from the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and colleagues used data from consecutive patients participating in three patient registries (between April 2015 and July 2019) to determine HS-related factors associated with absenteeism, presenteeism (reduced productivity at work), and at-work productivity loss and to quantify the scope of the problem.

The researchers found that overall, 62.0 percent of patients worked at the time of inclusion. Nonworkers were significantly more likely to have presence of inguinal/gluteal HS, increased HS severity, higher pain scores, the presence of fibromyalgia, and higher depression and anxiety scores. Even among working patients, 26 percent reported actual work time missed (median absenteeism: 0 percent [95 percent confidence interval, 0.0 to 5.3]). Median presenteeism due to HS was 20 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 0.0 to 50.0), and median at-work productivity loss was 20.0 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 0.0 to 69.0). There was a significant association between Pain, Dermatology Life Quality Index, and EuroQol-5 Dimensions scores with presenteeism and at-work productivity loss.

"The factors associated with nonwork and at-work productivity loss in our study are modifiable through medical and/or surgical treatment, which could have a favorable effect on work status and productivity," the authors write.

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