title: Quality of life and site of the lesion in dermatological patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The visible aspect of skin lesions and its psychological impact interfere in the quality of life of patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the quality of life and site of dermatological lesion; to check associations between variables and compare levels of quality of life in patients with lesions on the face and/or hands and patients with lesions in parts of the body other than face and/or hands.
  
  
  METHODS
  descriptive, association-based cross-sectional study. Two hundred and five subjects were assessed using SF-36 Generic Life Quality Questionnaire "The Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey" (SF-36); the Dermatology Life Quality Index DLQI-BRA, and socio-demographical and lesion site data files.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant differences were observed in the results for quality of life between the two groups but the number of associations between SF-36 and DLQI-BRA was higher in the group with lesions on the face and/or hands. Significant differences were verified in a further detailed division into five groups. The significant difference (p=0.05) appeared between the group with lesions on the face and/or hands and the group with generalized lesions, being that the latter presented an average ranking of 114.06 compared with 69.1935 in the former group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Regardless of the site of lesion, the feeling of exposure and the damages to which the dermatological patients are exposed are similar. It seems that skin diseases bring about the feeling of exposure and embarrassment no matter which site of the body is affected because in any intimate approach there is some sort of exposure involved.
authors.affiliation: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul - Porto Alegre (RS), Brasil. marthaludwig@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Martha Wallig Brusius
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Ludwig
authors.forename: Margareth da Silva
authors.initials: Mda S
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Marisa Campio
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: João Feliz Duarte de
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Moraes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007642:Keratosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011565:Psoriasis / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult