Lebensqualität in der Dermatologie

Abstract

Health-related quality of life has not only been established as an important patient-reported outcome measure in patient care but has been defined as an evaluation criterion for therapies in the German Code of Social Law as well as in the guidelines of the American Food and Drug Administration and of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Quality of life can be measured in a standardised manner. Validated questionnaires are available for recording specific problems of patients with, for example, skin diseases. Measuring quality of life has not yet been implemented into daily dermatological routine, although (1) studies have confirmed that the measurement of quality of life offers major benefits for the treatment of skin diseases, and (2) first experiences in implementing quality of life measurement into practice have been positive. The further implementation of systemically measuring quality of life requires advancements in automated measurement and the assumption of cost by social health insurances.

Why quality of life measurement is important in dermatology clinical practice

“…Given that there are many anecdotal reports of such use, this is an area that requires further documentation, validation and dissemination of good practice. Muller et al 38 state that QoL measurement offers major benefits for the treatment of skin diseases and that first experiences of implementing QoL measures into practice have been positive. Although we did not carry out a systematic review regarding advantages and disadvantages of integrating QoL measurements in routine clinical practice across all medical specialties, it is likely that the advantages and disadvantages identified in this Opinion Statement would equally apply in other medical specialities.…”