Effect of the Pruritus on the Quality of Life: A Preliminary Study

BACKGROUND: Pruritus affects the quality of life (QoL) in the patients. However, little is known of the impacts of itching on the QoL in the literature. OBJECTIVE: In this study, a questionnaire eliciting specific responses about pruritus was used to determine the effect of itching and its severity on QoL in chronic pruritic patients. METHODS: One hundred ten adult patients with chronic pruritus were surveyed. Once itch severity had been self-reported by patients, together with Skindex-29, they have been given the 18-item Pruritus-related Life Quality Index (PLQI) questionnaire, which was used to generated the new index. RESULTS: Significant correlations have been found between the pruritus severity score of participants and their total Skindex-29 (p<0.001) with its function, emotion and symptom subscale scores (p<0.001 for each). Also, significant correlations were evident between total PLQI (p<0.001) and its psychosocial negativities, difficulties in everyday activities and social live subscale scores (p<0.001 for each). In particular, the emotion subscale of Skindex-29 (p=0.02) and psychosocial negativity subscale of PLQI (p=0.02) were significantly high in psychopathologic patients. A highly positive statistical correlation between Skindex-29 and PLQI scales was evident (r=0.845, p<0.001). For reliability, Cronbach's coefficient a coefficients were 0.931 for the Skindex-29 scale and 0.918 for the PLQI scale. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that chronic pruritus appreciably reduces the QoL. PLQI could be used in the development of new questionnaires for determining the QoL of patients with chronic itch.