Quality of life in patients with skin diseases in central Saudi Arabia

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious national and international studies of quality of life (QoL) in patients with skin diseases have revealed different levels of QoL impairment. The aims of this study were to assess QoL in patients with skin diseases in central Saudi Arabia using the newly validated Skindex-16 instrument and to determine the association between QoL in patients with skin disease, sociodemographic data, and disease characteristics.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 283 adult patients who visited the outpatient dermatology clinics of King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, over 3 months. The patients were interviewed using a pretested Arabic version of the Skindex-16 to measure the effect of skin disorders on their QoL during the previous 7 days. Patient characteristics, medical history, and clinical findings were collected. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to relate the demographic and clinical characteristics to the percentage mean QoL score, and P ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.ResultsQoL was good in 69% of the respondents, with a total percent mean score of 31.80 ± 20.16. The emotional domain was the most affected (mean percentage score 44.27 ± 27.06), followed by symptoms (31.45 ± 28.40) and functioning (14.61 ± 22.75). After adjustment for potential confounders, poorer QoL was significantly associated with female gender (P = 0.03), older age (P = 0.003), rural origin (P = 0.03), positive family history of the same lesion(s) (P = 0.01), shorter duration of ≤6 months (P = 0.02), generalized spread (P ≤ 0.02), and lack of isotretinoin treatment (P = 0.02).Conclusion. The QoL results in this study were generally more optimistic than those of many previous studies. This discrepancy may be due to biases in questionnaire responses or to cultural differences in experience of skin disease and perception of disability. Significant predictors of QoL were not the same for the three domains of the Skindex scale. Further studies of specific diseases and educational programs targeting patients at higher risk for QoL impairments are recommended.

Awareness of Risk Factors for Skin Infections and its Impact on Quality of Life among Adults in a Malaysian City: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…These findings are similar to those of previous studies undertaken in other countries using various setups and sample sizes [23][24][25]. The effect on QoL of embarrassment and self-consciousness resulting from skin infection was also in line with other studies performed in central Saudi Arabia, in which the location of lesions caused by skin infection created a major psychological impairment in individual identity development [26,27]. Furthermore, the messiness and time-constraints imposed by the topical application of treatments for skin infection caused discomfort and annoyance [28].…”

“…A study of emotionally affected acne patients has shown that when they adhere to treatment as they became more aware of the condition, both their outcomes and quality of life improve [29]. Furthermore, social and family support is an essential predictor of increased awareness about skin infection, which in turn improves the functionality aspect of QoL [30].…”

Quality of Life in Patients with Skin Diseases Attending a Public Healthcare Institute of Quetta City, Pakistan

“…[7] Perhaps the low mortality rates associated with skin disorders is associated with this undervaluation; the adverse effect of skin disorders on patients' QoL is well documented in literature. [8] Furthermore, trials have also reported that disability-adjusted life years associated with skin diseases are also very much similar to that of other chronic medical conditions. [9] It is now known that 20-90% of the population suffers from some type of skin disease and approximately 24% of primary care visits around the globe are because of skin disorders.…”

Agreement between two instruments for measuring quality of life in dermatology

“…Ovi podaci pokazuju da kožne bolesti imaju uticaj na funkcionisanje, ali da je njihov uticaj na psihološko stanje pacijenata znatno veći. U saglasnosti sa ovim podacima su i podaci drugih studija u kojima je za ocenu kvaliteta života pacijenata sa kožnim bolestima korišćen Skindex-16 [10,17,18].…”

“…Svaki od tih instrumenata sastavljen je od upitnika, sa različitim pitanjima. U istraživanju, instrumenti kvaliteta života specifični za dermatologiju, korišćeni su kod pacijenata sa jednim oboljenjem kože ili uopšte sa kožnim bolestima [7,8,9,10,11,12]. I pored postojanja publikovanih podataka o valjanosti i pouzdanosti za ove instrumente, još uvek ne postoji saglasnost o tome, da li u okviru jedne studije treba koristiti samo jedan ili dva instrumenta za kvalitet života [13,14,15,16].…”