Prevalence, clinical criteria, and risk factors of skin tags: a hospital-based study

Abstract

Background Skin tags are benign condition; however, their appearance may be associated with some risk factors. There are no studies correlating clinical criteria of skin tags with the associated comorbidities whether isolated or mixed. Objective To evaluate prevalence, clinical criteria of skin tags, and risk factors that may be associated with skin tags. Patients and methods This study included 1000 participants, who were screened for the presence of skin tags and examined to detect clinical criteria. Patients with skin tags were screened for the presence of comorbidities (obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia) and were classified into patients without associated comorbidities and those with isolated or mixed comorbidities. Results Overall, 30% of patients presented with skin tags. Most skin tags were brown (72%), small (50.8%), sessile (81.6%), and located on neck (56.6%). Comorbidities were reported in 95% of patients with skin tags, with predominance of mixed comorbidities (65.96%). In comparison with patients without associated comorbidities, skin tags with isolated comorbidities were more sessile (P=0.043) and medium sized (P=0.002). However, skin tags with mixed comorbidities were more sessile (P=0.011), more numerous (P≤0.001), and with older age of onset (P<0.001) compared with those without comorbidities. On comparing the two groups of comorbidities, skin tags with mixed comorbidities were more black (P≤0.001), large (P≤0.011), more numerous (P≤0.001), and older age of onset (P≤0.001). There was a significant correlation between lesion duration and numbers and age, BMI, random blood sugar, hemoglobin A1c, and dyslipidemia. Conclusion Skin tags are very common and considered as cutaneous markers for risk factors such as age, BMI, random blood sugar, hemoglobin A1c, cholesterol, and low-density lipoproteins. Presence of mixed comorbidities can increase the liability of skin tags to be more numerous, larger, and with late age of onset compared with presence of isolated comorbidity or even absence of comorbidity.