Quality of life and mental health of patients with rosacea

Abstract

Background: Rosacea is a common and well known chronic cutaneous disease. The typical symptoms are cosmetic problems, and the recurrent nature of rosacea requires long term treatments that might have a profound effect on the quality of life (QOL) and mental health of these patients. However, there have been only epidemiological studies on Rosacea in the Korean dermatologic literature. Objective: TThe aim of this study was to evaluate the QOL, psychosocial stress, anxiety and depression levels in Korean patients with rosacea and to determine the factors that have an impact on the QOL of rosacea patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on thirty-three adults with rosacea and who had visited our department and thirty-five healthy volunteers with no dermatologic disease or other chronic illness. The rosacea patients were diagnosed by dermatologists who decided the rosacea subtypes before the patients were enrolled in this study. The patients' subjective perceptions of severity were assessed using the Likert scales and the QOL was assessed using Skindex-29. The mental health interview included the psychosocial well-being index-short form (PWI-SF), the trait anxiety inventory (TAI) and the Beck depression inventory (BDI) as measures of psychosocial stress, anxiety and depression, respectively. The QOL, PWI-SF, TAI and BDI scores of the rosacea patients were compared with those of the controls. The subjective perceptions of severity, QOL and the PWI-SF, TAI and BDI scores were also compared between the erythemato-telangiectatic type patients and the papulopustular type rosacea patients. Results: As compared with the controls (n=35), the rosacea patients (n=33) had a significantly decreased QOL (Ρ=0.000). The scores of the PWI-SF, TAI and BDI for patients with rosacea were higher than those of the controls, meaning the rosacea patients had more psychosocial stress, anxiety and depression (Ρ=0.000, 0.000, 0.001). No significant differences in the subjective perception of severity, QOL and mental health were found between the erythemato-telangiectatic and papulopustular type patients (Ρ=0.825, 0.438, 0.268, 0.631). The high self-reported subjective perception of severity, psychosocial stress and anxiety showed significant correlations with low QOL. Conclusion: These results indicate that rosacea has a large impact on the patients' QOL and mental health. Taking into account the patients' subjective perception of disease severity and mental health as potential determinants of the QOL of rosacea patients, more attention and effort should be given to develop Korean versions of rosacea-specific QOL instruments as these might more accurately and objectively indicate the severity of the disease.