English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Nail involvement in psoriasis is likely to influence the quality of life (QOL) because of its highly visible site; however, the impact of this disease on QOL is an underexplored area. Similarly, the relationship between severity of skin involvement and nail involvement has been overlooked. The study was conducted to evaluate the clinico-epidemiological characteristics of psoriasis patients with and without nail changes and assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Furthermore, the correlation of severity of nail involvement with the severity of skin involvement and its impact on quality of life was assessed. METHODS A total of 370 adult psoriasis patients with or without nail changes was studied. Skin severity was assessed by body surface area (BSA) and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) while nail severity was assessed using Nail Psoriasis Severity Index (NAPSI). Patients’ quality of life was measured using the Nepali Version of Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). RESULTS Nail psoriasis was more prevalent in males in both the groups; females were having more nail involvement (0.041). There were no significant diff erences in other clinico-epidemiologic characteristics between these two groups except the late onset of psoriasis in the age group > 30 years, scalp involvement and absence of family history of psoriasis (P ≤ 0.05). There was a strong positive correlation between the age of onset of skin changes with age of onset of nail involvement (r = 0.799) and the joint involvement (r = 0.742) as well as the age of onset of joint involvement with nail changes (r = 0.838). The mean PASI was 7.265 ± 7.153 vs. 6.189 ± 7.153 in patients with > 10 vs. ≤ 10 total NAPSI score and it was statistically significant (P = 0.011), however, there was a moderate positive correlation between PASI and NAPSI (r = 0.32). Almost half of psoriasis patients had very large to extremely large effects on quality of life but leisure and treatment domain were affected more amongst patients with nail changes. Early onset of joint involvement, body surface area of > 3 % involvement and PASI score > 5 had significant effect on quality of life. CONCLUSIONS The nail involvement is an important finding in determining the severity of skin involvement and had very large to extremely large effect on quality of life particular on leisure and treatment domain. Therefore, nail examination must be done in all psoriatic patients. KEYWORDS Nail Psoriasis, Quality of Life, Dermatology Life Quality Index, Psoriasis Area and Severity Index, Nail Psoriasis Severity Index