RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Chronic urticaria (CU) is one of the most common skin disorders. This disease commonly induces emotional, social and psychological problems due to the erythematous lesion and intense pruritus. But there has been inadequate objective evaluation of the quality of life (QOL) of the patients with CU in Korea. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the QOL of the Korean patients with CU by means of a new disease-specific tool and to assess the association between the QOL and the severity of disease. METHODS: A total of 118 patients with CU were interviewed using the CU QOL questionnaire (CU-Q2oL). Their symptoms were evaluated with the urticaria severity score. We analyzed the relationship between the severity score and the CU-Q2oL score with Pearson's correlation test. RESULTS: The average score of the CU-Q2oL was 50.08+/-18.68. It was high when the patients had high severity scores (p<0.01). The severity score was increased in the patients with old age and when they were married. Comorbid systemic and skin diseases, a long duration of urticaria and systemic symptoms accompanying urticaria were also related to a high severity score. CONCLUSION: This study showed that CU has a significant impact on the QOL of Korean patients with CU in proportion to the disease severity. Clinicians need to consider the QOL and the CU severity of their patients to achieve the ideal goals of treatment.