Childhood Atopic Dermatitis: A Nationwide Measurement of Quality of Life among Saudi Patients

BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis (AD) negatively affects the quality of life (QoL). However, few studies from Saudi Arabia have assessed the effect AD has on the QoL of pediatric patients. OBJECTIVE: To determine the psychological impact of AD on pediatric Saudi patients using the Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI). METHODS: This cross-sectional was conducted across five tertiary hospitals located across five cities of Saudi Arabia from December 2018 to December 2019. The study included all Saudi patients aged 5–16 years who were diagnosed with AD for at least 6 months prior to visiting the dermatology clinic of the included hospitals. The quality of life in children with AD was assessed using the Arabic version of the CDLQI. RESULTS: A total of 476 patients were included, of which 67.4% were boys. AD had a very large and extremely large effect on the QoL in 17.4% and 11.3% of the patients, respectively; the QoL of only 5.7% of the patients was not impacted due to AD. The average CDLQI score was not significantly different between males and females (9.7 vs. 9.1, respectively; P = 0.4255). Domains related to symptoms and emotions were affected to a greater extent compared with the remaining domains, while the school domain was the least affected. The correlation between age and CDLQI (r = 0.04, P = 0.52) and between the duration of the disease and CDLQI (r = 0.062, P = 0.18) was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that AD affects the QoL of a significant proportion of the Saudi pediatric patients, thereby highlighting the need to consider QoL as a measure of treatment success.