Invloed van huidaandoeningen op het dagelijks leven (IHDL)

Abstract

The development of a multidimensional health status inventory for chronic skin diseases is described that includes both generic and skin-specific scales. The skin-specific part assesses dimensions of physical functioning, more specifically skin status, physical symptoms of itch, pain and fatigue and scratching responses as well as disease-specific stressors of stigmatization. The generic part gauges dimensions of psychological functioning, disease-related impact scales, illness cognitions and social support by means of existing scales validated for other chronic diseases. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire were studied in patients with psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. The scales of the questionnaires showed high internal reliability and test-retest reliability and satisfying convergent validity in both patient groups. Sensitivity to change was demonstrated for both dermatological and cognitive-behavioural itching treatment. The overall highly satisfying results for reliability and validity support the usefulness and applicability of the questionnaire for different chronic skin diseases.