title: A new tool to evaluate the impact of chronic urticaria on quality of life: chronic urticaria quality of life questionnaire (CU-QoL).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health-related quality of Life in patients with chronic urticaria is evaluated by mean of generic instruments or questionnaire designed for skin diseases. No disease-specific tool is now available for the assessment of chronic urticaria impact from patients' viewpoint.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of our study is to develop and validate a new questionnaire specifically designed for the assessment of quality of life in chronic urticaria (Chronic Urticaria Quality of Life Questionnaire -- CU-Q(2)oL).
  
  
  METHODS
  In the development phase of CU-Q(2)oL an initial list of items of 37 items was compiled and given to 80 patients with chronic urticaria; the 23 most significant items were selected and converted into questions evaluating the answers on a Likert scale of five steps. The validation procedure involved 125 patients (86 F and 39 M) (age 42.17 +/- 9.24 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Following a statistical analysis, CU-Q(2)oL showed a six-dimensional structure and good levels of internal consistency for the extracted factors: Pruritus (0.79), Swelling (0.65), Impact on life activities (0.83), Sleep problems (0.77), Looks (0.83) and Limits (0.74). In stable conditions CU-Q(2)oL showed a good reliability, ranged between 0.64 and 0.92. Responsiveness to clinical changes was accomplished.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results provide evidence that CU-Q(2)oL has specificity enough for being a valid tool for detecting the relative burden of CU on subjective wellbeing, and for obtaining a global evaluation both of CU impact and of treatments, taking into account the patient's point of view. The CU-Q(2)oL was easily and quickly filled up and well accepted by the patients.
authors.affiliation: Allergy and Respiratory Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Baiardini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pasquali
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Braido
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fumagalli
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guerra
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Compalati
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Braga
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lombardi
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Fassio
authors.forename: G W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Canonica
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D014581:Urticaria / Q000503:physiopathology*