Subjective well-being in patients with pemphigus: a path analysis

Psychological morbidity in patients with pemphigus and its clinicodemographic risk factor: A comparative study

Due to the long disease duration, impact on appearance, social stigmatization, and numerous side effects of treatment, pemphigus, an autoimmune bullous disease, often has a significant psychological impact on patients. On the other hand, mood disorders may exacerbate the disease by affecting the patient's self-management, forming a vicious circle. To investigate anxiety and depressive disorders in patients with pemphigus, a total of 140 patients with pemphigus were recruited for this cross-sectional retrospective study between March 2020 and January 2022. A control group of 118 patients with psoriasis, a commonly known psychosomatic dermatosis, was established. Patients were evaluated at the visiting day with the Beck Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory second edition for mood disorders, the Dermatology Life Quality Index and the EuroQol Five Dimensions Questionnaire for disease-related life quality, and the Visual Analogue Scale for pain and itching symptoms. In our cohort, 30.7% of patients with pemphigus suffered from either anxiety disorder (25%) or depressive disorders (14.3%). Propensity score matching was implemented to create a comparable cohort of pemphigus and psoriasis groups considering the baseline discrepancy. Thirty-four comparable pairs of pemphigus and psoriasis patients were extracted. The prevalence and severity of depressive disorder in pemphigus patients were significantly higher than in psoriasis patients, while anxiety disorder levels appeared to be similar in two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis further revealed that disease-related hospitalization history, active mucosal damage, and concomitant thyroid disease are independent risk factors for mood disorders in pemphigus patients. Our results showed that pemphigus patients had a high prevalence and severity of mood disorders. Relevant clinicodemographic indicators may be valuable for prediction and early identification of mood disorders in pemphigus. Better disease education from physicians may be important for these patients to achieve overall disease management.

Burden of pemphigus vulgaris with a particular focus on women: A review

Pemphigus vulgaris is a chronic autoimmune mucocutaneous blistering disorder. Apart from the disease itself, other aspects of patients' life, including psychological, social, and financial, can be affected. Women are particularly more disposed to the impact of the disease due to their physiological characteristics, the specific periods of pregnancy and lactation as well as their social and familial role. In this review, we summarized the burden of pemphigus vulgaris on various aspects of women's lives. It is essential to understand these problems and provide appropriate support for patients with such a burdensome disease.

A comparative study on the measurement properties of Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), DLQI-Relevant and Skindex-16

BACKGROUND

Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and Skindex-16 are among the most commonly used dermatology-specific health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) instruments. DLQI has two common scoring methods, the original and the DLQI-Relevant (DLQI-R) modification. Head-to-head comparisons of the measurement properties of the DLQI, DLQI-R and Skindex-16 are currently lacking.

OBJECTIVES

We aim to compare the measurement properties of the DLQI, DLQI-R and Skindex-16.

METHODS

We analysed data from 618 patients with self-reported physician-diagnosed dermatological conditions from a cross-sectional survey carried out in Hungary in early 2020. DLQI, DLQI-R and Skindex-16 were compared in terms of ceiling and floor effects, informativity, convergent validity and known-group validity.

RESULTS

Mean DLQI, DLQI-R and Skindex-16 total scores were 3·76 ± 5·03, 4·11 ± 5·34 and 29·36 ± 26·62, respectively. Among patients with a DLQI/DLQI-R total score of zero, 64% reported problems on Skindex-16. Overall, 23-38% of patients with 'not relevant' responses on DLQI items 3 (shopping/home/gardening), 7 (working/studying), 8 (interpersonal problems) and 9 (sexual difficulties) reported problems on their corresponding Skindex-16 items. Average relative informativity (Shannon's evenness index) was the highest for Skindex-16 (0·85), followed by DLQI-R (0·66) and DLQI (0·54). DLQI, DLQI-R and Skindex-16 demonstrated similar convergent validity. DLQI was able to better discriminate between known groups of patients based on overall skin-related HRQoL impairment, whereas DLQI-R and Skindex-16 performed better with respect to self-perceived health status.

CONCLUSIONS

Skindex-16 seems to be more sensitive than DLQI/DLQI-R in capturing mild impairment in HRQoL. Our findings help to provide a fuller understanding of the difference between DLQI, DLQI-R and Skindex-16 and support the informed choice of instrument for clinical and research purposes.

Measurement properties of the ICECAP-A capability well-being instrument among dermatological patients

BACKGROUND

Capability well-being captures well-being based on people's ability to do the things they value in life. So far, no capability well-being measures have been validated in dermatological patients.

OBJECTIVES

To validate the adult version of the ICEpop CAPability measure (ICECAP-A) in patients with dermatological conditions. We aimed to test floor and ceiling effects, structural, convergent and known-group validity, and measurement invariance.

METHODS

In 2020, an online, cross-sectional survey was carried out in Hungary. Respondents with self-reported physician-diagnosed dermatological conditions completed the ICECAP-A, Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), WHO-5 Well-Being Index and two dermatology-specific measures, Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and Skindex-16.

RESULTS

618 respondents (mean age 51 years) self-reported a physician-diagnosed dermatological condition, with warts, eczema, onychomycosis, acne and psoriasis being the most common. ICECAP-A performed well with no floor and mild ceiling effects. The violation of local independence assumption was found between the attributes of 'attachment' and 'enjoyment'. ICECAP-A index scores correlated strongly with SWLS and WHO-5 (r_s = 0.597-0.644) and weakly with DLQI and Skindex-16 (r_s = - 0.233 to - 0.292). ICECAP-A was able to distinguish between subsets of patients defined by education and income level, marital, employment and health status. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis indicated measurement invariance across most of these subgroups.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study to validate a capability well-being measure in patients with dermatological conditions. The ICECAP-A was found to be a valid tool to assess capability well-being in dermatological patients. Future work is recommended to test measurement properties of ICECAP-A in chronic inflammatory skin conditions.

Disease burden of patients with pemphigus from a societal perspective

Introduction: Cost-of-illness studies are widely used for healthcare decision-making; however, no such study is available in pemphigus from the societal perspective. The purpose of this analysis was to estimate annual cost-of-illness per patient with pemphigus from a societal perspective. Areas covered: Between 2014 and 2017, a multicenter, cross-sectional study was carried out. Consecutive pemphigus patients aged ≥18 years were recruited at all four university dermatology departments in Hungary. Direct and indirect costs were calculated, including costs for treatments, outpatient visits, hospital admissions, informal care, travel costs and productivity loss. Generalized linear model was used to analyze predictors of costs. Atotal of 109 patients with pemphigus enrolled with amean age of 57.1 (SD 14.8) years. Total cost per pemphigus patient was €3,995 (SD €7,526) peryear, with productivity loss (58%) and informal care (19%) accounting for the majority. Annual means of 189 and 41 working hours were lost due to absence from work and reduced productivity, respectively. Younger age and pemphigus vulgaris were associated with higher costs (p < 0.05). Expert opinion: This is the first cost-of-illness study applying the societal perspective in pemphigus. Our results indicate a substantial economic burden on society, mainly driven by productivity loss and informal care.