Which Health-Related Quality of Life Items Most Affect Acne Patients?

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) assessment in patients with acne is recommended by several national guidelines. There are several acne-specific HRQoL instruments. OBJECTIVES: Participants of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Task Forces (TFs) on QoL and Patient Oriented Outcomes (PO) and Acne, Rosacea, and Hidradenitis Suppurativa (ARHS) agreed to scrutinize aspects of existing acne-specific HRQoL instruments for their relevance in international study. METHODS: Consensus agreement on items related to QoL was reached after an independent assessment by seven experts from the EADV TFs on QoL and PO, and a list of 97 items was prepared and proposed to a group of acne patients. In order to have data from patients to check if any important topics were overseen, another group of acne patients from participating countries was asked to list how acne influenced different aspects of their lives. RESULTS: Based on results obtained from 601 acne patients from nine countries, most of the items and topics showed low relevance for acne patients especially during the previous month or shorter time periods. Based on percentage of relevance and factor analysis, short (6 items) and long (45 items) lists of the most relevant topics were formed. CONCLUSION: Most of the items and topics from the initial list showed low relevance for acne patients. None of the identified acne-specific HRQoL instruments contain all the items that were deemed most relevant to acne patients. For this reason, participating members of the EADV TFs on QoL and PO, and ARHs are in the process of developing a new acne-specific HRQoL instrument.

Quality of Life of School and University Students with Acne.

Acne may have severe negative impact on different aspects of patient health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Prevalence of acne in university and school students is high, and the HRQoL of students with acne from different countries was studied. There is a lack of studies on direct comparison of HRQoL impairment of university and school students with acne. The Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADI) was used to assess the HRQOL in university and school students with self-assessed acne. The CADI results from 159 university and 99 school students with self-reported acne were obtained. Mean age of university and school students was 20.99±1.47 (mean ± Standard Deviation) and 14.10±0.51 years, respectively. Reported impact on QoL of university students was significantly higher (3.33±2.26 and 2.76±2.42, P<0.05). Total CADI scores negatively correlated with the age of university students (r=-0.16; P<0.05). Analysis of gender differences of university students showed that negative correlation of HRQoL with age was present in women (r=-0.22; P<0.05) but absent in male students (r=0.05; P=0.77). Female university students reported more severe impact of acne on their life (2.55±2.31 in male and 3.59±2.20 in female students, P<0.01). Our results showed that university students experience higher impact of acne on their life than school students. The highest is the impact on young female university students. We recommend paying more attention to the psychological aspects of young female students with acne during consultations.