title: Quality of life in alopecia areata: a disease-specific questionnaire.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease affecting about 2% of the population, which has a considerable impact on quality of life (QoL). There are no disease-specific questionnaires to assess QoL in patients suffering from AA.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To validate a new disease-specific questionnaire for AA, named AA-QLI, and to compare the consequent Quality of Life Index (QLI) with the commonly known Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) to verify if it can provide a more comprehensive tool for patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 50 patients affected by AA were administered both the AA-QLI, created by us, and the well-known DLQI. With the aim to detect suitable QLI, we propose to use two multivariate analyses: • a principal component analysis approach on the data collected with both questionnaires to compare their capability to measure the QoL; • a structural equation modelling on our AA-QLI to identify which category of symptoms mostly affects the QoL.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The scores of both the questionnaires are quite close, except for a few cases. Statistical analysis shows a higher specificity of the AA-QLI for evaluating QoL. Among the three areas in which AA-QLI is divided, 'Relationship' has a major impact on the QLI, followed by 'Subjective symptoms'; 'Objective signs' has a lower weight on the QLI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AA-QLI is a good instrument to evaluate the real impact of AA on QoL. It can be helpful both for the physician and for the patient.
authors: Department of Systematic Pathology, Section of Clinical, Allergological and Venereological Dermatology, University of Naples Federico II, Italy Department of Specialistic and Experimental Clinical Medicine, Division of Dermatology, University of Bologna, Italy Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Fabbrocini
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Panariello
authors: V
authors: V
authors: De Vita
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Vincenzi
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Lauro
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Nappo
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Ayala
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Tosti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000506:Alopecia Areata / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult