Psychosocial well-being of patients with skin diseases in general practice.
BACKGROUND
Skin diseases are a substantial part of the problems dealt with by general practitioners. Although the psychosocial consequences of skin diseases in secondary care has been extensively studied, little is known about the psychosocial well-being of patients with skin diseases in primary care.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the psychosocial well-being of patients with skin diseases in primary care.


METHODS
Questionnaires about the psychosocial consequences of skin diseases were sent to patients with a skin disease who were registered within a research network (continuous morbidity registration) of general practices that continuously have recorded morbidity data since 1971. Questionnaires completed by 532 patients were eventually suitable for analyses.


RESULTS
Compared with the general population, patients with skin diseases reported significantly lower scores for psychosocial well-being. Furthermore, a lower psychosocial wellbeing was significantly related with higher levels of disease-severity, lower disease-related quality of life, longer disease duration, more comorbidity and more physical symptoms of itch, pain and fatigue. After demographic variables and comorbidity were controlled for, sequential regression analyses showed that disease duration, disease severity and physical symptoms (itch, pain and fatigue) were significant predictors of psychosocial well-being.


CONCLUSIONS
The psychosocial well-being of patients with skin diseases in primary care is lower than that of the general population. Special attention has to be directed to those patients with lowered psychosocial well-being who might be at risk of developing severe psychosocial impairments such as clinical depression.
Verhoeven
E W M
EW
Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. l.verhoeven@mps.umcn.nl
Kraaimaat
F W
FW
van de Kerkhof
P C M
PC
van Weel
C
C
Duller
P
P
van der Valk
P G M
PG
van den Hoogen
H J M
HJ
Bor
J H J
JH
Schers
H J
HJ
Evers
A W M
AW
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D011788:Quality of Life; D012042:Registries; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires