Psoriasis & quality of life: spot study, results at 3 months

Abstract

Context: Psoriasis is a chronic disease that affects 4.7% of the European population. Even though it is not life-threatening, it is a very disabling condition in daily life because of the damage that it does to the body image. Therefore, the improvement of the patients’ quality of life is one of the medical treatment’s priorities. Method: SPOT is a longitudinal, prospective observational program that follows 800 patients with psoriasis in France. One group was treated with topical retinoid, the other was treated with a vitamin D3 derivative, and the specific quality of life was evaluated through the PDI questionnaire. The patients are questioned at the time of inclusion and at 3 months. Objective: To assess the impact of a treatment on the patients’ quality of life. Results: In this first analysis, the first 167 patients were included and were analysed at inclusion and 3 months after initiation of the treatment. Retinoid group n = 66, vitamin D3 derivative group n = 101. The PDI score at inclusion was: Retinoid group: 14.7% (SD = 14.6), vitamin D3 derivative group: 13.6% (SD = 13.0). The PDI score after 3 months was: Retinoid group: 11.8% (SD = 13.9), vitamin D3 derivative group: 11.1% (SD = 12.2). These first results show evidence of an improvement of the patients’ quality of life 3 months after treatment (p < 0.003 for the retinoid group, p < 0.011 for the vitamin D3 derivative group). PDI provides a finer analysis based on 5 dimensions, which are: daily activities, work, personal relationships, leisure and treatment. The vitamin D3 group was improved significantly with regard to the leisure dimension (p = 0.0087) while the improvement was borderline significant for the work dimension (p = 0.058). The retinoid group was improved significantly in terms of the daily activities (p = 0.0009) and the treatment (p = 0.0001) while the improvement was borderline significant for the work (p = 0.056) and leisure dimensions (p = 0.059). Conclusion: As shown by the PDI, an improvement in the patients’ quality of life was observed following their management.