Quality of life Assessment in a patient with Urticaria

Abstract

Background: Chronic Urticaria is a disease with a profound effect on the quality of life and daily activities, its precise assessment is of great value. Quality of life impairment in chronic urticaria is comparable to the one found in coronary artery disease and is higher than in some other dermatologic conditions such as psoriasis, acne and vitiligo. Aim: To determine the mean quality of life index in patients with chronic urticaria presenting in a tertiary care hospital. Study design: Descriptive & cross sectional study Duration: The study was carried out from 10-04-2014 to 09-10-2014 Methods: This study was conducted at Outpatient Department of Dermatology, Unit I, KEMU/ Mayo Hospital, Lahore. Chronic urticaria was diagnosed clinically based upon the episodic appearance of characteristic urticarial lesions (as per operational definition). After taking informed consent, basic demographical information was taken then each patient was requested to fill the proforma. Results: 154 patients were included in the study. Mean age of patients was 38.46±1.51 with minimum and maximum age 18 to 83 years.Gender distribution of patients showed that there were 61 male and 93 female patients. Mean duration of disease was 3.21±4.96 years. Mean severity of disease was 35.50±5.77. Mean Dermatology life quality index was statistically same in male and female patients. i.e., (p-value-=0.317) and significantly associated with marital status of patients. i.e. (pvalue=0.029) DLQI severity score was not significantly associated with gender and marital status of patients. Conclusion: Our study shows that chronic urticaria has large effect on the QOL of patients with significant psychosocial limitations. The severity of chronic urticaria is more in females as compared to males and married. Impairment of QOL is also greater in females.