Scabies Infestation and Risk of Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: Scabies is an infectious inflammatory skin disease. Cytokine-mediated inflammatory responses may be one of the pathological mechanisms underlying myocardial infarction. Objective: We explore the association between scabies and subsequent acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and all-cause mortality; Methods: We conducted a nationwide population-based study using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan. Patients with scabies (n = 30,184) and 120,739 controls without scabies were included. The primary outcomes were incidental AMI and all-cause mortality. Using Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis, we estimated the risk of acute myocardial infarction for the study cohort; Results: The mean age of the study cohort was 51.81 ± 19.89 years. The adjusted sub-distribution hazard ratios (aSHRs) of AMI were 1.214 (95% CI, 1.068–1.381) after adjusting for demographic characteristics, income, OPD utility frequency, days in hospital, co-morbidities, and medication. The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of all-cause mortality after adjusting for age, gender, income, OPD utility frequency, days in hospital, co-morbidities, co-medication, and urbanization was 1.612 (95% CI, 1.557–1.669). Conclusions: Our study showed that patients with scabies infestations were at higher risk for subsequent AMI and all-cause mortality.