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. 2017 Jul 24;15(1):148.
doi: 10.1186/s12955-017-0720-y.

Assessment of quality of life in patients with post kalaazar dermal leishmaniasis

Biplab Pal  1 , Krishna Murti  1 , Niyamat Ali Siddiqui  2 , Pradeep Das  3 , Chandra Shekhar Lal  4 , Rajendra Babu  1 , Manoj Kumar Rastogi  1 , Krishna Pandey  5
Affiliations

Assessment of quality of life in patients with post kalaazar dermal leishmaniasis

Biplab Pal et al. Health Qual Life Outcomes. .

Abstract

Background: Post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) is a dermatological disorder caused by protozoal parasite Leishmania donovani. PKDL cases are thought to be a reservoir of parasites and may increase cases of visceral leishmaniasis. The disease is not life threatening but cosmetic disfigurement associated with it may impair the patients' quality of life. This study aimed to assess the health related quality of life in patients with post kalaazar dermal leishmanasis for the first time.

Methods: A total of 92 PKDL cases and 96 healthy participants filled out the questionnaires. The Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and SF 36 questionnaire were used to assess the quality of life. Data on socio-demographic and clinical features were also collected. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software (version 16), Student's t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied for comparison of means.

Results: PKDL patients experienced very large impact on their quality of life. The mean score of DLQI was 11.41. Highest impact was found in symptoms and feelings and lowest impact was observed for personal relationship domain. Patients below 20 years age group found to have lower quality of life. There was a significant difference in mean DLQI scores with regard to age and severity of lesions (P < 0.05). No significant difference was observed with respect to gender, duration and location of lesions (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: PKDL significantly impaired the patient's quality of life. Further studies to assess the impact of treatment on quality of life in these patients are recommended.

Keywords: Dlqi; India; Pkdl; Quality of life; SF36.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee of Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMIMS), Patna (07/RMRI/EC/2016). Written Informed consent was taken from all the participants prior to study participation.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing of interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

None
Fig. 1 Impact of PKDL on quality of life in patients
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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