Permanent disability pension due to skin diseases in Denmark 2003-2008

Skin diseases are common in the society. The majority of papers published on the impact of skin diseases are focused on clinical consequences of the quality of life, depression and anxiety. The overall societal perspective on skin disease is only poorly described but is important in the understanding of how skin diseases affect patients and in arguments for continued specialist services. An approach to explore the societal impact of skin diseases is to investigate the incidence of permanent disability pensions granted due to skin diseases. The present study evaluated the number of permanent disability pensions granted due to skin diseases in Denmark during the 2003-2008 period and related them to previous findings. In view of the high prevalence of skin diseases in the society, and particularly their role in occupational medicine, only a low number of disability pensions are granted. This may reflect that skin diseases either have less impact on the individual or are not considered by the authorities as debilitating as other high prevalence diseases such as musculoskeletal, psychiatric or circulatory diseases.