Life quality assessment among adult patients with atopic dermatitis

Background: Quantification of quality of life (QOL) related to disease severity is important in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), because the assessment provides additional information to the traditional objective clinical scoring systems. Objective: We evaluated the association between QOL and severity scoring systems of AD. Methods: We assessed QOL, clinical severity scores, and total IgE in peripheral blood in 41 AD patients at our dermatology clinic over an 8 month period. QOL was assessed at two visits with a monthly interval by a dermatology-specific questionnaire (Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI)). Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) and Scoring of Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) was used to measure disease severity. Visual analogue scale (VAS) of pruritus and loss of sleep (LOS) were also recorded. Results: The mean DLQI was 11.6. For DLQI the dimension with the highest score was 26, and the lowest score was 2. DLQI did not correlate with EASI at visit 1, but correlated well with EASI at visit 2. Changes of DLQI in each patient between visits 1 and 2 were significant (p<0.05) and positively correlated with the severity scoring (EASI, SCORAD). In addition, the sum of VAS of pruritus and loss of sleep a correlated well with the DLQI and EASI at each visit. Conclusion: AD has a great impact on QOL of patients. Although the DLQI is known as an excellent method of measuring QOL in patients with dermatologic disease, correlation between DLQI and disease severity was not definite. However, changes of DLQI during follow-up significantly correlated with clinical course in each patient. Therefore, DLQI can be an important parameter when evaluating the disease course in AD patients.