Supplementary Material for: Prevalence of Hidradenitis Suppurativa in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic and debilitating inflammatory skin disease, which mostly occurs in the skinfolds. The global prevalence of HS is currently unknown. Depending on the type of research and studied population, the reported prevalence varies between 0.03% and 4.1%. It is important to investigate the prevalence of HS worldwide using the same study design, in order to recognize, diagnose, and treat patients in an earlier stage. Consequently, a worldwide initiative, the Global Hidradenitis Suppurative Atlas (GHiSA) has developed a study design to investigate the world-wide prevalence of HS in a comparable manner. The prevalence of HS in a Pacific Islander population has not been reported. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of HS in Kapuna, Papua New Guinea.

We conducted an explorative, descriptive, cross-sectional mono center study in a secondary care center, the Kapuna hospital Papua New Guinea, to estimate the prevalence of HS in a Melanesian Pacific Islander population from Papua New Guinea. Participants were healthy persons accompanying patients who were admitted to Kapuna Hospital or attending its Outpatient Department, and healthy hospital staff. The primary outcome of this study was the point prevalence of HS in Papua New Guinea.

A total of 520 participants were included in this study. The prevalence of HS in these 520 participants was 0.38% (2/520, 95% confidence interval 0.1-1.4%).

The point prevalence of HS in Papua New Guinea was 0.38%. The findings of this study contribute to fill a gap in the current insights of the global HS prevalence.