title: Health-related quality of life in dermatology: introduction and overview.
abstract: Improvement of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a major goal of dermatology. Identifying how the skin condition affects lives, quantifying this burden, and using this information to improve patients' lives on an individual basis are important targets in clinical dermatology. Using this information in clinical trials and on a health policy level is the objective of QoL research. This article introduces a compendium of articles that address HRQoL in dermatology across a spectrum of diseases and ways that HRQoL can be incorporated in the clinical and research settings.
authors.affiliation: Division of Dermatology, Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Decatur, GA 30322, USA. schen2@emory.edu
authors.forename: Suephy C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D003880:Dermatology; D014943:Global Health; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D012107:Research Design; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires