{"id":56190,"date":"2018-03-20T10:50:04","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T14:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=56190"},"modified":"2018-03-20T10:50:04","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T14:50:04","slug":"dermatology-scale-validates-quality-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2018\/03\/20\/dermatology-scale-validates-quality-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Dermatology Scale Validates Quality of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Can having a skin condition impact the quality of your life? Absolutely, claim\u00a0BUSM researchers who have set out to find the best tool to measure the impact on patients.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2018\/03\/ThinkstockPhotos-665648670.jpg\" alt=\"COM-healthy skin\" width=\"440\" height=\"293\" class=\" wp-image-56198 aligncenter\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Several dermatology and disease-specific tools have been developed to measure the impact of skin disease including the widely-used Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and the non-validated Skin Discoloration Impact Evaluation Questionnaire (SDIEQ). But the question remains: is one scale superior to the other, and\/or easier to use?<\/p>\n<p>In this study, BUSM researchers compared the DLQI with a short\u00a0questionnaire (SDIEQ) to determine the impact of dark spots on a patients\u2019 quality of life<\/p>\n<p>After analysis of 321 adults with hyperpigmentation disorders using both scales the researchers found that DLQI and SDIEQ were similarly effective in measuring quality of life, however SDIEQ was simpler to use and less time consuming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnowing how a condition impacts a\u00a0patients\u2019 quality of life is essential and a helpful guide in making treatment choices,\u201d explained corresponding author Neelam Vashi, MD, assistant professor\u00a0of dermatology at BUSM and director of the Boston University Cosmetic and Laser Center at Boston Medical Center. \u201cMeasuring health-related quality of life is also important in patients when it comes to allocation of resources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vashi added that further studies are needed to validate the use of this tool in different patient populations and potentially other disorders of pigmentation, such as vitiligo.<\/p>\n<p>These findings appear as a Research Note in the <em>Journal of Dermatology<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can having a skin condition impact the quality of your life? Absolutely, claim BUSM researchers who have set out to find the best tool to measure the impact on patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12772,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12772"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56190"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56201,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56190\/revisions\/56201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}