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Atopic dermatitis is a common disease of increasing prevalence. Affected individuals must cope with a significant psychosocial burden, in addition to dealing with the medical aspects of the disease. Furthermore, because this is primarily a disease of childhood, family members, especially parents, are also affected by the condition. Individuals and family members are burdened with time-consuming treatment regimens for the disease, as well as dietary and household changes. The financial impact of atopic dermatitis on families can also be great. Moreover, the cost to society is significant, with estimates ranging from less than 100 dollars to more than 2000 dollars per patient per year. It is estimated that the direct cost of atopic dermatitis in the United States alone is almost 1 billion dollars per year. Reducing the onus of this disease must take into account the full breadth of its burden. Targeting parents and caregivers with education and psychosocial support can decrease family and personal burden, which in turn may decrease the cost of treating the condition because of better medical, psychosocial, and family outcomes.

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The self-administered psoriasis area and severity index (SAPASI) is a structured instrument for measuring the severity of psoriasis. This study examines the validity, reliability, and responsiveness of the SAPASI. Trained personnel performed a psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) assessment on the same day a SAPASI was obtained from 80 subjects. The validity of the SAPASI was demonstrated using the PASI as the standard (r2 = 0.59, p = 0.0001). Significant correlations were found between SAPASI and PASI for body surface area (r = 0.62-0.75), erythema (r = 0.39), induration (r = 0.24) and scale (r = 0.38). Test-retest reliability was assessed in 19 subjects with repeated evaluations within 2 d. Correlations between the first and second SAPASI scores (r = 0.82) were highly significant (p = 0.0001). Inter-rater reliability of SAPASI body surface area measurements among five raters was very high (intraclass correlation coefficient R = 0.953). The SAPASI was responsive to changes in severity over time as demonstrated by correlation with changes in PASI scores (r = 0.63, p = 0.0002). We conclude that this structured patient self-report instrument facilitates quantitative assessment of psoriasis.