Acceptance of illness and need for education to support dermatology self-care in psoriasis patients: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction Acceptance of illness greatly affects the quality of life of psoriatic patients. Assessment of patients’ need for education and support is very important for patients’ counselling and follow-up. Aim To evaluate acceptance of illness and need for education to support dermatology self-care in Arabic patients with psoriasis. Material and methods A cross-sectional study using a survey was conducted. The survey collected patients’ demographics, disease characteristics, Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS) and Person-Centered Dermatology Self-Care Index (PeDeSI). Outcome measures were presented in total and in relation to age, gender, disease duration, disease severity, quality of life and level of education. The correlation between AIS and PeDeSI was examined using Spearman’s rank correlation test. Results In total, 209 psoriatic patients from 12 Arabic countries participated in the survey with mean ± SD age of 35.8 ±10.0 years. The median (IQR) AIS score was 28 (19–35). The median (IQR) of the PeDeSI score was 15 (11–22). Both AIS and PeDeSI did not differ in relation to age, gender, disease duration, and level of education. However, patients with a higher impairment in quality of life reported lower levels of illness acceptance ( p = 0.001) and a higher need for education and support ( p = 0.004). AIS and PeDeSI were moderately correlated (rho = 0.33, p < 0.001). Conclusions Arabic psoriatic patients showed moderate acceptance of illness and required some education to support dermatology self-care. Greater clinical attention with focus on patient education and counselling should be given to Arabic patients with psoriasis especially those with more impaired quality of life.

Exploring Patients, Cognition of Living with Psoriasis

“…Contrary to this finding, Soliman (24) found that psoriasis patients reported that the feet, toes, and toenails was the least affected parts however, the scalp and hairline was the highest affected area. Additionally, the results of present study showed that only a minority of patients had clear or non-inflamed psoriasis plaques, whereas almost two-fifths of patients reported very red, inflamed, scaly, or thick plaques which is similar to the findings of Soliman (29) .…”

“…Controversy, the study of Kowalewska et al (34) concluded that the level of psoriasis acceptance among men was significantly higher than among women. Besides that, Soliman (29) and the Egyptian study of Aladi et al (40) showed that psoriasis acceptance did not differ in relation to gender.…”

“…These findings might be attributed to the fact that psoriasis is painful, disfiguring, and disabling disease with presence of lesions on visible body parts, recurrent episodes and lifelong persistence. Similarly, a cross-sectional survey conducted among psoriasis patients from 12 Arabic countries including Egypt, found that 25.4% and 35.9 % of patients reporting a low and moderate acceptance of psoriasis (29) . Conversely, the studies of Kowalewska et al (34) and Budzińska et al (35) in Poland revealed that most psoriasis patients showed high and moderate levels of psoriasis acceptance.…”

“…In correspondence with this, the German study of Bubak et al (41) found that all educated psoriasis patients had a much higher level of knowledge, selfexpertise about their condition and general health. Additionally, according to Soliman (29) , psoriasis patients with lower levels of education were less willing to accept their condition, which may have contributed to overestimation of their disease severity. However, this finding comes in disagreement with the study of Soliman (12) who indicated that acceptance of psoriasis did not differ in relation to level of education of the patients.…”

Level of Acceptance of Illness and Its Association with Quality of Life among Patients with Epilepsy in North Shewa, Ethiopia

“…This justifies level of acceptance of illness to be an important element in the quality of life of patients and a self-rated health of patients [ 40 , 41 ]. Therefore, to add an important element in the holistic medical or nonmedical care, educating epileptic patients about their chronic disease might be essential to increase patients' level of acceptance of illness and thereby increase their quality of life [ 42 , 43 ].…”