title: Health outcome measures in atopic dermatitis: a systematic review of trends in disease severity and quality-of-life instruments 1985-2010.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A number of disease-severity and quality-of-life (QoL) instruments have emerged in atopic dermatitis (AD) in the last decade.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify trends in outcomes instruments used in AD clinical trials and to provide a useful summary of the dimensions and validation studies for the most commonly used measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  All randomized control trials (RCTs) from 1985 to 2010 in the treatment of AD were examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 791 RCTs reviewed, we identified 20 disease-severity and 14 QoL instruments. Of these outcomes instruments, few have been validated. SCORAD, EASI, IGA and SASSAD were the most commonly used disease-severity instruments and CDLQI, DFI, DLQI and IDQOL were the most frequently used QoL measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The small number of RCTs using QoL scales makes identifying trends for QoL instruments difficult.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, there is an increase in the use of disease-severity and QoL instruments in AD clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Balvinder
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rehal
authors.forename: April W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.forename: April
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Armstrong
mesh_terms: D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome