Infants' Dermatitis Quality of Life Index: a decade of experience of validation and clinical application

Abstract

The Infants' Dermatitis Quality of Life Index (IDQoL) is a questionnaire completed by parents to assess the impact of atopic dermatitis on the quality of life of infants aged 0-3 years. The aim was to review all clinical and psychometric data on the use of the IDQoL from its inception in 2001 until November 2012, to serve as a single reference source. A literature search was carried out using Medline, PubMed, EBSCOhost, Science Direct and Google Scholar. Articles and abstracts that described the clinical use of the IDQoL and those that investigated its psychometric properties were included. Articles not in English were excluded. Fifty-one publications were identified, of which 46 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. IDQoL data relating to psychometric, descriptive and clinical practice research, drug trials and therapeutic interventions were extracted. The IDQoL has been translated into 21 languages and used in 18 countries, including two multinational studies. Thirty-one studies demonstrated its psychometric properties, such as test-retest reliability, internal consistency, validity, responsiveness to change and interpretability. No studies investigated dimensionality, carried out factor analysis or described the minimal clinically important difference of the tool. Eight studies used the IDQoL to assess the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions such as education programmes, consultations and wet-wrap therapy, while seven studies described the use of IDQoL in topical interventions. When deciding whether to use the IDQoL, researchers and clinicians should consider the validation data, the relevant comparative clinical data available and the potential burden on the respondents.

Correlation between Objective SCORAD and Three-Item Severity Score Used by Physicians and Objective PO-SCORAD Used by Parents/Patients in Children with Atopic Dermatitis

“…Only a few studies have examined the correlation between the Objective SCORAD and the QoL in children <4 years old using the IDQoL, and the conclusions of those studies are conflicting [25,26,27,28,38,39]. We found that the subjective QoL scores of the children were positively correlated with the objective severity assessments of AD when using the Objective SCORAD, with a significant and good correlation in both the older and the younger age group.…”

Broader concepts of quality of life measurement, encompassing validation

“…It is helpful, if QoL instrument developers summarize and report on the later published experience of their use, although this seldom happens. In reviews parallel to the ‘PostMarketing’ surveys of new therapies, we have reported on 10‐20 years experience of the PDI, DLQI, CDLQI, IDQoL and DFI . These summaries bring together many aspects of validation of these measures that would otherwise remain scattered and unidentified in the literature.…”

Topical therapy in atopic dermatitis in children

“…A simple scheme is shown in Table 1,[1] but other scores include physician measures of severity such as SCORAD, EASI, and SASSAD[2] and patient measures such as Patient Orientated Eczema Measure. [3] Quality of life tools include CDLQI,[4] IDQOL,[5] and FDLQI. [6]…”