Clinical Features and Risk Factors for Nasal Rosacea: A Hospital-Based Retrospective Study

INTRODUCTION: At present, some studies have reported that nasal rosacea may be an independent disease, but phenotypic characteristics and risk factors for nasal rosacea remain unknown. This study aimed to clarify the clinical features and explore the risk factors for nasal rosacea. METHODS: A hospital-based retrospective study was conducted, including 1615 rosacea patients and 1501 healthy individuals. The patients were divided into three groups based on the involved areas of the lesions (non-nasal, intermediate and nasal rosacea group). Their demographic data and clinical features were obtained from patients’ medical records, and risk factors of nasal rosacea were analyzed. RESULTS: There were 927 (57.4%), 647 (40.1%) and 41 (2.5%) cases in the non-nasal, intermediate and nasal rosacea groups, respectively. Of 41 patients with nasal rosacea, all (100.0%) had fixed erythema and 17 cases (41.5%) had phymatous changes. Compared with control group, male gender (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.14, 4.99), obesity (aOR = 3.19, 95% CI 1.86, 11.79) and alcohol use (aOR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.22, 5.40) were risk factors for nasal rosacea, but these three factors were not risk factors for non-nasal rosacea and intermediate rosacea groups. Among patients with nasal lesions (compared with patients without nasal phymatous changes), family history of rosacea was a risk factor (aOR = 2.12, 95% CI 1.01, 4.46) for nasal phymatous changes and Fitzpatrick IV skin type was a protective factor (aOR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.28, 0.86). CONCLUSION: Nasal rosacea has relatively specific clinical features and independent risk factors, suggesting that it may be a special type of rosacea.