A Study of Quality of Life in Patients with Facial Melanoses

CONTEXT: Facial melanoses decreases the quality of life (QoL). Melasma is the commonest cause but there are various other etiologies for facial pigmentation. AIMS: To study the clinical profile of patients with facial melanoses and the psychological burden in these patients. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: All patients having patchy or diffuse facial pigmentation attending the OPD in a tertiary care hospital for a period of 1 year were included in this hospital based cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The type, extent, and distribution of the pigmentation was noted and tabulated in all patients. All patients were explained about Skindex-16 questionnaire and asked to complete it. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Student t-test (two tailed, independent) was used to find the significance of study parameters on continuous scale between two groups. Chi-square/Fisher Exact test was used to find the significance of study parameters on categorical scale between two or more groups. Correlation was performed using Spearman corrélation. RESULTS: The total number of cases studied was 238 of which 186 (78.2%) were females and 52 (21.8%) were males. The most common diagnosis was melasma seen in 73% of cases. Other conditions noted were phototanning (5.8%), post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (5.8%), Lichen planus pigmentosus (4.2%), freckles (3.7%), and Nevus of Ota (1.6%). Skindex-16 score against different grades of pigmentation showed that the mean Skindex-16 score was higher in severe cases but there was no statistically significant difference between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: The extent and severity of facial pigmentation and the decrease in the QoL are not proportional.