Feasibility of modified DLQI-based questionnaires for evaluation of clinical efficacy of herbal medicine in chronic skin diseases

Abstract

Background: The efficacy of herbal medicines is thought to be ambiguous. The quality of life (QOL) of patients has been well-recognized as an useful measurement and we thought it to be a measurement of the efficacy of herbal medicine.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the feasibility of modified DLQI-based questionnaires in evaluating the efficacy of herbal drugs in chronic skin diseases.

Methods: 19 in-patients with chronic skin diseases were selected and treated by the herbal medicines just added on the previous drugs. By using the QOL-sheet, the patients' QOL before and after herbal treatments were converted to scores and we examined the scores to be a useful measurement. The QOL-sheet was made referring to the dermatology life quality index (DLQI) with our original questions and visual analogue scale (VAS) in Japanese.

Results: The herbal drugs were effective as the treatment with significant difference (P < 0.05) at clinical impression, DLQI and VAS. No significant differences of correlation between clinical impression, DLQI/DLQI with AQ and VAS/VAS with AQ was proved (P > 0.05).

Conclusions: The QOL-sheet scored both by DLQI and by VAS may be useful to evaluate the efficacy of herbal medicines. However it may be necessary to reconsider the contents of our original questions.