Health-Related Quality of Life Burden Among Adults with Vitiligo: Relationship to Disease Severity and Disease Location.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Vitiligo was historically regarded as a cosmetic disorder; however, it is an autoimmune disease. As a visible condition, it affects patient well-being. We assessed the impact of disease severity, lesion location, and body surface area (BSA) affected on patient health-related quality of life (HRQoL). METHODS: Retrospective data were from the Adelphi Real World Vitiligo Disease Specific Programme a cross-sectional survey of physicians and their patients with vitiligo (10/2021-07/2022). Patient-reported outcomes were assessed by the Vitiligo-Specific Quality of Life Instrument (VitiQoL), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and EQ-5D-5L. The Work Productivity and Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI) questionnaire was used to assess disease-related impairment of daily activities. Data were stratified by physician-reported disease severity, presence/absence of vitiligo on the face, and BSA percentage affected. RESULTS: In total, 1388 patients were included. Mean (SD) VitiQoL, HADS depression, and anxiety scores were higher for those with severe disease [40.5 (26.1), 5.2 (4.4), and 6.8 (4.7)] than those with mild [24.8 (18.8), 3.6 (3.8), 4.2 (3.8)] or moderate [27.1 (22.6), 3.8 (4.5), 4.3 (4.4)] disease. Patients with face affected reported higher VitiQoL [30.0 (22.3) versus 23.2 (19.3)], and HADS scores [depression, 4.3 (4.3) versus 3.2 (3.9); anxiety, 5.0 (4.3) versus 3.8 (3.9)] than those without. Patients with ≥ 5% BSA affected had higher VitiQoL, depression and anxiety scores [27.9 (21.8), 4.0 (4.4), and 4.5 (4.2)] than those with 0-5% [24.6 (19.7), 3.4 (3.7), and 4.3 (4.1)]. Patients with severe vitiligo, facial lesions, or ≥ 5% BSA reported higher activity impairment. Mean EQ-5D-5L-utility score was approximately 0.9 regardless of disease severity or total BSA affected. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate the impact disease severity can have on HRQoL and daily activities for patients with vitiligo. Lesions that are more severe, on the face, or covering a greater BSA are more often associated with poorer outcomes and activity impairment. These data also highlight the potential insensitivity of commonly used HRQoL measures and a need for more sensitive disease-specific measures.

Vitiligo is a disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigment. In this study, we examined medical records of patients who have non-segmental vitiligo (the most common type of vitiligo) to better understand how the following factors affect the quality of life of patients with non-segmental vitiligo (a) disease severity, (b) whether the face was affected, and (c) how much of the body was affected. Using a variety of measures, we found that patients with non-segmental vitiligo had lower quality of life, more symptoms of anxiety and depression, and higher activity impairment than those who did not. Our research highlights the differences in the measures used to assess the quality of life of patients, as well as the need for new therapies for non-segmental vitiligo.