title: Quality of life in psoriatic patients: a study using the short form-36.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality of life (QOL) is increasingly recognized as an important outcome measure in dermatology. Psoriasis has a great impact on QOL of patients, and has a strong effect on social relations, psychological status, and daily activities. This study describe and compare the impact of different grades of severity of psoriasis on QOL of patients in north of Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was performed on 55 patients diagnosed with psoriasis and 55 healthy controls. The patients were selected by consecutive sampling from April to December 2006. The controls were recruited by simple random sampling among patient escorts. After obtaining written informed consent, all the members were included into the study. The Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) standard questionnaire was used to determine the severity of the disease. In addition, the short-form-36 questionnaire, which is validated for use in Iran, was employed. The gathered data were analyzed using the Stata (V 8.0, SE) (Copyright 1984-2003, Stata Corporation, 4905 Lakeway Drive Special Edition, College Station, Texas 77845 USA) and analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, The mean PASI scores was 5.4 ± 6.7, total QOL scores had a significant difference between patients and controls (61.1 ± 17.0 vs. 71.9 ± 22.4) (P < 0.05), especially in three domains: Role-physical (58.5 ± 23.3 vs. 70.8 ± 26.2), general health (43.8 ± 21.6 vs. 61.5 ± 27.3), and social functioning (62.7 ± 26.7 vs. 79.5 ± 27.5) (P < 0.01). Physical activities were affected in >50% of the cases. This figure significantly increased with the increasing severity of psoriasis. In addition, social relationships were disrupted in more than half of the patients, but with no significant difference between different grades of severity (P > 0.05). There is no significant difference between adjusted score of multiple domains of QOL in psoriatic patients according to PASI levels (ANCOVA, P > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The physicians' awareness of the importance of patients' QOL in both physical and emotional aspects could improve and enhance the psychological evaluation of the psoriatic patient, which will promote his/her positive outcome. And, PASI score can't to predict the QOL really.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Darjani
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Abtin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heidarzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Javad
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Golchai
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahrivar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sadr-Eshkevari
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Narges
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Alizadeh
authors.affiliation: Medical Education Development Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arami
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
authors.forename: Nahid
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nichhah
keywords: Psoriasis; psoriasis area and severity index; quality of life; short-form-36