title: Investigating psoriasis awareness among patients in Italy: validation of a questionnaire.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Psoriasis can have a profound impact on quality of life (QoL) and an awareness of the processes of the disease and its treatment is important in coping with symptoms. Patients do not always understand the potential consequences of their disease and the wide range of effective treatment strategies now available. We designed and validated a questionnaire to investigate patient awareness and understanding of psoriasis including pathogenesis, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a multicentre, cross-sectional investigation involving 14 psoriasis referral centres in Italy. The focus group technique was used by a panel of experts in psoriasis, to draw-up a list of questions exploring pathogenesis, diagnosis, prognosis, factors influencing clinical course of psoriasis as well as QoL issues and sources of information on their condition. Psychometric properties of the questionnaire were tested on a sample of 240 adult patients with psoriasis (including treatment-naïve and -experienced patients).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of patients was 50.3±14.9 years and 34.2% were female. The median time from diagnosis was 13.7 years (IQR 7.3-23.2). The Cronbach alpha was 0.77 and all items showed higher correlations within their own dimensions than to other dimensions. Each domain of awareness was well represented by a single dimension. Mean overall awareness was 59.7±13.1 on a 100-point scale.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our questionnaire was valid in assessing patient awareness in five relevant areas of psoriasis, and can be useful in both the clinical setting and research studies to evaluate patients' knowledge of psoriasis better, with the final aim of reducing the burden of this chronic condition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, St. Orsola Malpighi Hospital, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. l.scudeller@smatteo.pv.it.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bardazzi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Amerio
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Amoruso
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Campanati
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Conti
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Simone
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gisondi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gualdi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guarneri
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Loconsole
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazzotta
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Musumeci
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Odorici
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Piaserico
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Potenza
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Scudeller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011565:Psoriasis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D016896:Treatment Outcome