Impact of vitiligo on life quality of patients: Assessment of currently available tools

How different tools for evaluating the impacts of skin diseases on QoL reflect the burden of vitiligo has rarely been compared. In this study, we evaluated the impact of vitiligo on QoL using currently available tools. Patients with vitiligo completed established questionnaires including dermatology life quality index (DLQI), short form-36 (SF-36), and willingness to pay (WTP). Of the 143 patients enrolled, 34.6% were identified having significant mental stress by SF-36 mental health domain score ≤ 56 while there were only 13.3% patients with significantly hampered QoL indicated by DLQI > 10. Using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, DLQI ≥7 was found to be a more appropriate DLQI cutoff value for identifying mental stress in vitiligo patients. Additionally, the median WTP for treating vitiligo was comparable to other inflammatory skin diseases. Conclusion: There exist discrepancies in the outcomes identifying significant disease burden of vitiligo using DLQI and SF-36, making the current DLQI cutoff score (> 10) for identifying significantly affected QoL inappropriate for these patients.目前极少有研究对不同皮肤疾病生活质量（Quality of Life, QoL）影响评估工具在反映白癜风疾病负担方面的应用效果进行比较。本研究采用当前可用的评估工具，探究白癜风对患者生活质量的影响。入组的白癜风患者完成了经过验证的成熟问卷，包括皮肤病生活质量指数（Dermatology Life Quality Index, DLQI）、简明健康调查问卷（Short Form-36, SF-36）以及支付意愿（Willingness to Pay, WTP）。在143例入组患者中，34.6%的患者SF-36心理健康维度得分≤56，提示存在显著心理应激；而仅13.3%的患者DLQI评分>10，表明其生活质量显著受损。经受试者工作特征曲线（Receiver Operating Characteristic curve, ROC曲线）分析，DLQI≥7被证实为识别白癜风患者心理应激的更合适临界值。此外，白癜风治疗的支付意愿中位数与其他炎症性皮肤病相当。结论：采用DLQI与SF-36评估白癜风显著疾病负担时所得结果存在差异，当前用于识别生活质量显著受损的DLQI临界值（>10）并不适用于此类患者。