title: Effect of the Dead Sea climatotherapy for psoriasis on quality of life.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is well known that quality of life is an integral part in the outcome evaluation process of psoriasis treatment. Very few studies, however, examined the effect of climatotherapy at the Dead Sea on quality of life of such chronically ill patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the effect of the Dead Sea climatotherapy on the quality of life of patients with psoriasis vulgaris and psoriatic arthritis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 119 patients participated in an observational prospective study carried out at the Deutsches Medizinisches Zentrum clinic, a medical skin care center specializing in climatotherapy. The patients completed questionnaires (Skindex-29) to quantify their quality of life at different time points: the day of arrival, the day of departure, and 3 and 6 months after the end of treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Marked improvement in the quality of life scores was measured between the time of arrival to time of departure and to 3 months after the end of treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dead Sea climatotherapy has a significant positive influence on the quality of life of patients with psoriasis vulgaris and psoriatic arthritis.
authors.affiliation: Joint Research Institute on Climatotherapy for Skin Diseases at the Dead Sea, DMZ Medical Center, Dead Sea, Israel. eran.kopel@mail.huji.ac.il
authors.forename: Eran
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kopel
authors.forename: Assi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Levi
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harari
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ruzicka
authors.forename: Arieh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ingber
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015535:Arthritis, Psoriatic / Q000628:therapy; D013790:Climatotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D011565:Psoriasis / Q000628:therapy*; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome