Research Article
Published: 24 January, 2019 | Volume 4 - Issue 1 | Pages: 001-009
Background: Skin diseases is a common worldwide problem. It affected every aspect of patients’ quality of life (QOL) mainly physically, socially and psychologically.
Objectives: to assess the impact of skin disorders on patients’ quality of life and to identify factors associated with it.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted in outpatient dermatology clinic of a tertiary hospital in Malaysia. A random sample of 145 patients with acne, psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (AD) were interviewed using DLQI questionnaire during their scheduled follow-up appointments at dermatology clinic.
Main outcome measure: Self-reported patients’ QOL due to their skin diseases.
Results and discussion: Out of three skin diseases psoriasis patients had the highest prevalence (39.3%) followed by AD (34.5%) and acne (26.2%). Patients’ QOL was highly influenced by their skin conditions especially on working/schooling domain. Furthermore, several factors were identified, namely age, working environment, concurrent skin diseases, usage of supplement for skin diseases and type of food as aggravating factors—that may influence patients’ QOL. QOL among females and younger adults was found to be more significantly influenced as compared to males and elderly. With respect to working environment, those who had both indoor and outdoor working environment showed the highest impact of their skin conditions on their QOL. Single patients were more influenced by their skin conditions when compared to those who are married, however it was not significant.
Conclusion: Our findings revealed skin disease had negatively impacted individual QOL with different level of aspects. Among the three diseases, AD patients had the worst impact on QOL. Significant predictors of QOL did not relate solely to skin diseases but also other factors such as type of food and working environment.
Read Full Article HTML DOI: 10.29328/journal.jcicm.1001018 Cite this Article Read Full Article PDF
Quality of Life (QOL); Acne; Psoriasis; Atopic dermatitis; Malaysia
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