Assessment of Life Quality, Stress and Physical Activity Among Patients with Psoriasis

Abstract

Introduction: Psoriasis is a chronic, autoimmune, inflammatory skin disease affecting 2-4% of the general population, which nowadays is even perceived as a systemic illness. The nature of this dermatosis may negatively influence patients' general condition, life expectancy, and quality of life, which highlights the severity of the problem and the need to perform further investigation. We aimed to assess quality of life, stress severity, and physical activity of patients with psoriasis in relation to demographic and clinical data and comparison to the control group without dermatoses.

Methods: A set of surveys was conducted in 56 patients with psoriasis hospitalized at the Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Bialystok. Questionnaires used involved the Dermatology Life Quality Index, WHO Quality of Life questionnaire, International Questionnaire of Physical Activity, and a self-invented stress survey. Obtained data were compared to a sex- and age-matched control group without dermatoses. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism.

Results: Patients with psoriasis were found to be significantly less satisfied with their health and had lower scores in WHO social, environmental, and psychological domains, comparing to controls. Patients reported higher stress severity and lower satisfaction with sex life and physical appearance than controls. Patients with psoriasis also tended to perform less intensive physical activity than controls.

Conclusions: This study highlights the perception of psoriasis as not only affecting skin but also having a multifactorial impact on psychological and internal condition. Described lifestyle abnormalities can be easily evaluated with validated questionnaires, which could be introduced to patients in order to raise their awareness of comorbidities and mobilize them to modify incorrect lifestyle habits. Screening for other disorders and introduction of a holistic approach to every patient could be beneficial because the improvement of patients' life quality is one of the most important issues.

Keywords: Life quality; Physical activity; Physical appearance; Psoriasis; Quality of life; Sex life; Social life.

Fig. 1

Correlations between WHO domains, inability to take physical activity, stress severity, embarrassment with physical appearance, and time spent on skin care

Fig. 2

General quality of life and its domains according to WHO-QoL: a satisfaction with own health , b psychological domain, c somatic domain, d social domain, e environmental domain, and f stress assessment including comparison between patients and controls. Asterisks mean the existence of statistically significant difference between values in the patients’ and control group with *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.0001

Fig. 3

Satisfaction with sex life (a) and physical appearance (b) in patients and controls. ***Statistically significant difference between values in the patients’ and control group with p < 0.0001

Fig. 4

Physical activity assessment with comparison between patients and controls. Asterisks mean the existence of statistically significant difference between values in the patients’ and control group with **p < 0.01/***0.0001