title: Quality of life in patients with anogenital warts.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anogenital warts (GW) are among the most common sexually transmitted diseases. Few studies have investigated the quality of life (QoL) of GW patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We undertook an exhaustive description of the health status of GW patients and assessed disease impact on QoL.
  
  
  METHODS
  GW patients enrolled at the Sexually Transmitted Diseases service of Rome Catholic University were administered the SF-36 questionnaire to assess health status, the Skindex-29 to evaluate the impact of dermatological aspects and the GHQ-12 questionnaire to identify patients with probable minor psychiatric non-psychotic conditions. Clinical severity was assessed with the Physician Global Assessment (PGA) and through quantitative measures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a significant association between greater disease severity and lower SF-36 values (reflecting a worse QoL). The severity parameters showed no significant differences in any of the Skindex-29 scales except for Emotions, which showed higher values (reflecting a worse QoL) in patients with severe disease assessed by PGA. The GHQ-positive patients (23.7%) consistently showed worse QoL scores on all the SF-36 scales and on all the Skindex-29 scales compared to GHQ-negative patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of the impact of GW on QoL to use a range of validated tools, both generic and dermatology-specific. We observed a strong influence of GW on the mental and physical components of QoL in terms of general health status (SF-36). The effects in terms of specific dermatological aspects (Skindex-29) were less significant, but still reflected an impact on patients' emotional state.
authors.affiliation: Health Services Research Unit, IDI-IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paradisi
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, L.go A Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Rodolfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Capizzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, L.go A Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ricci
authors.affiliation: Health Services Research Unit, IDI-IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Di Pietro
authors.affiliation: Health Services Research Unit, IDI-IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Damiano
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Abeni
authors.affiliation: Health Services Research Unit, IDI-IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tabolli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001004:Anus Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D003218:Condylomata Acuminata / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: HPV; anogenital warts; condylomata; quality of life