Quality of life of psoriatic patients and their acceptance of the disease

Psoriasis and its acceptance adversely affect the patient’s quality of life. This study aims to measure quality of life of psoriatic patients, psoriasis disability index and acceptance of psoriasis as a disease and their associated factors as well as their interaction.

A total of 125 psoriatic patients were included in the study. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected. Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI), Psoriasis quality of life index (PQOL), Psoriasis Disability (PDI) and acceptance of psoriasis scale index (PAI) were measured using Arabic validated tools. Multivariate linear regression analysis was done to find out the independent predictors of the outcome variables.

The mean overall PQOL, PDI and PAI were 14.3, 20.8 and 60.1; respectively. Compared to the moderate/severe chronic plaque psoriasis, the mild chronic plaque shows significantly lower mean PQOL, lower mean PDI and higher mean PAI. There are positive moderate significant correlations between PQOL and PDI and PASI (r=0.59, r=0.54; respectively). However, there is inverse moderate significant correlation between PQOL and psoriasis acceptance index (r=-0.55). The linear regression revealed that the independent predictors of psoriasis quality of life are PDI, PASI and PAI. These three variables predict 0.42 of variability of PQOL.

psoriasis exerts significant, negative effect on patients' quality of life. Disease disability, severity and its acceptance are independent predictors of quality of life.