Quality of Life in Patients with Skin Disease and Their Cohabitants

Abstract

Health evaluation implies assess multidimensional aspects of a person’s development, such as physical, social, psychological, and emotional features. It is important to consider all these factors to apply a needs-oriented each patient approach. Chronic skin diseases have a great impact on quality of life, even more than other chronic conditions. For example, hidradenitis suppurativa is estimated to impair quality of life more than cardiovascular disease, lung disease or endocrine diseases. Multiple tools have been developed to measure health-related quality of life in patient, being the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) the most used. Psoriasis, hidradenitis suppurativa, acne, atopic dermatitis and hair disorders are those with the greatest impact on patients’ quality of life. Moreover, chronic skin conditions impair not only patients’ quality of life, but also cohabitants. Nevertheless, there is scarce information regarding the impact on their cohabitants. So, the objective of this chapter is to review the literature to assess the psychological and social effects of dermatological conditions both on patients and cohabitants.