Evaluation of Knowledge, Disease Severity and Quality of Life of Patients with Psoriasis

ABSTRACT

Background@#Psoriasis vulgaris is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory multi-system disease characterised by keratinocyte hyperproliferation. Data regarding patients’ disease severity, knowledge and quality of life (QOL) is important to optimize treatment strategies for psoriasis. This study aims to evaluate and investigate the relationship between disease severity, knowledge and QOL of patients with psoriasis. @*Methods@#A cross-sectional multicentre study utilizing a socio-demographic data collection form, Psoriasis Knowledge Assessment Questionnaire (PKAQ), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI was conducted. Correlations between PKAQ, DLQI and PASI were analysed using Spearman’s test. @*Results@#A total of 114 subjects participated in this study. Majority of them had mild psoriasis (n=73, 64%) based on PASI. The mean score of PKAQ was fourteen out of a total possible score of twenty-five, whereas the DLQI had a non-parametric distribution with a median (interquartile range) of 7 (10). Most subjects (32.5%) stated that psoriasis had a ‘moderate effect’ on their QOL, while only 3.5% said that it had an ‘extremely large effect’ on their QOL. There was a statistically significant correlation between PASI and DLQI (rs = 0.264, p = 0.004), with higher PASI scores corresponding to higher DLQI scores. No statistically significant correlation was found between DLQI and PKAQ (rs = -0.048, p= 0.612), and between PASI and PKAQ (rs = 0.058, p= 0.542).@*Conclusion@#Impairment of QOL was positively associated with severity of psoriasis. However, there was no significant relationship between knowledge and quality of life, as well as between knowledge and psoriasis severity.