Korean J Dermatol.
1999 Jun;37(6):739-745.
Quality of Life Measure for Patients with Skin Diseases: Vitiligo and Psoriasis
Abstract
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BACKGROUND: In recent times, it has been gradually emphasized that an aspect of diseases impacting on the quality of an individuals life goes beyond physical impairments with the development of economic and medical technology. Skin diseases especially may be associated with a variety of negative psychologic effects, such as low self-esteem, feelings of inferiority because skin lesions are exposed to others and cause cosmetic problems. Many researchers have been already established various dermatology-specific questionnaires and disease-specific questionnaires in developed countries, but these are rare in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
We tried to survey the social, psychological and physical aspects of patients with vitiligo and psoriasis to evaluate the impact of skin diseases on the quality of life in Korea.
METHODS
We inquired after 64 patients by using a dermatology-specific questionnaires Skindex recently developed by Chren et al. It has 6I-items and eight scales including cognitive, social, depression, fear, embarrassment, anger, physieal discomfort, and physical limitatians.
