People with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis have about 6% more fat around their internal organs than people without these conditions, even when they have the same body weight.
Scientific Claim
Patients with psoriatic disease have 5.9% higher whole-body visceral adipose tissue volume compared to BMI-matched controls (p < 0.01).
Original Statement
“MRI segmentation revealed that the PsD group had a 5.9% greater whole-body VAT volume and a 13.6% greater VAT/SAT ratio compared to BMI/ethnicity-matched controls (P < 0.01)”
Evidence Quality Assessment
Claim Status
appropriately stated
Study Design Support
Design supports claim
Appropriate Language Strength
association
Can only show association/correlation
Assessment Explanation
The study is observational and cross-sectional, so it can describe group differences but not causation. The verb 'have higher' is appropriate for a descriptive comparison between groups.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
More than skin-deep: visceral fat is strongly associated with disease activity, function and metabolic indices in psoriatic disease