The aim of this study was to develop and validate a standardized tool designed to assess health-related quality of life HRQoL in a large cohort of French patients with psoriasis, the QualiPso Questionnaire. A draft questionnaire was developed based on a literature review, followed by one-to-one interviews of 50 patients with psoriasis conducted by trained psychologists. The interview transcripts were analysed, after which 56 items were retained and validated in a cohort of patients.
Four QualiPso subscales were derived from factor analysis. It also measures the impact of concerns related to treatment outcomes and skin symptoms, which have not been addressed previously by HRQoL research on psoriasis. Key words: psoriasis; quality of life; validation; questionnaire; health status indicator. E-mail: alain. When lesions are visible to others, patients may be confronted with negative psychosocial reactions, such as stigmatization and negative judgements, which represent a significant burden on their social life 3—6.
Psoriasis is associated with a reduction in work productivity and social functioning, and with sexual dysfunction and depression 7—9.
Subjective experience of psoriasis was found to be more accurately associated with decreased QoL than medical indicators of disease severity 10, The psychosocial impact of the disease may thus explain the relatively high cost of this disease at both macro- and micro-economic levels.
Assessing HRQoL in psoriasis patients is critical for clinicians in order to improve patient care, therapeutic decisions and treatment management 12, Several psoriasis-specific questionnaires have been developed and tested 14— The Psoriasis Disability Index PDI has been used extensively in clinical studies, but it does not investigate psychological disturbances associated with psoriasis, while these issues are commonly described and reported by patients 21, The Psoriasis Life Stress Inventory PLSI provides a measure of the daily hassles of psychological stress associated with having to cope with everyday events in living with psoriasis 23 , and thus assesses disease-related stress and not HRQoL.
