The Kenyan Psoriasis Registry: Early Insights into Clinical Profiles and Treatment Patterns

The Kenyan Psoriasis Registry delivers the first systematic, longitudinal dataset on psoriasis in Kenya, offering immediate real‑world evidence to inform screening priorities, treatment access, and resource allocation. Based at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, the registry enrolls dermatologist‑confirmed cases with matched healthy controls and has begun reporting early cohort findings that already shape clinical understanding and policy discussions.

Methodologically, the registry uses prospective enrollment of clinician‑confirmed psoriasis with matched controls and captures core elements—demographics, clinical phenotype, comorbidities, validated patient‑reported outcomes, and biospecimens for future genotyping. Data entry follows standardized case report forms, clinician verification at enrollment, structured REDCap workflows, dedicated training for data collectors, and planned periodic audits and validation checks to limit misclassification. These procedures support robust, real‑world epidemiology in the Kenyan context.

Early cohort data (214 participants: 108 with psoriasis, 106 controls) show a mean age of disease onset near 30 years and an investigator global assessment skewed toward mild‑to‑moderate activity; psoriatic arthritis and other medical comorbidities appear underdiagnosed. Patients with psoriasis reported greater sleep disturbance and worse mental health than controls, findings that signal clinically meaningful impacts on quality of life and treatment adherence and that justify routine screening and integrated care pathways in clinics serving this population.

Treatment patterns reveal predominant use of moisturizers, prescription topical agents, and conventional systemic therapies with low penetration of biologic therapies—fewer than 10% of patients had ever accessed advanced biologic agents. Cost, constrained referral pathways, limited public procurement availability, and health‑system financing barriers likely explain the low uptake. This represents a modifiable equity gap with direct implications for management of severe disease.

The registry is structured for longitudinal follow‑up, nested analytic studies, and monitoring of treatment safety and effectiveness in a low‑ and middle‑income setting; planned linkages to laboratory and national health databases would strengthen causal inference and surveillance. Its workflow and training model create an expandable platform for multicenter enrollment and targeted nested trials, supporting sustainable generation of locally relevant, actionable evidence.