General practice

Postal questionnaire study of disability in the community associated with psoriasis

^a Norton Medical Centre, Norton, Stockton on Tees TS20 1AN, ^b Centre for Health and Medical Research, University of Teeside, Middlesborough TS1 3BA

Correspondence to: Dr O'Neill.

Abstract

Objective: To study the disability caused by psoriasis in patients recorded as having psoriasis by their general practitioner.
Design: Postal questionnaire survey using the psoriasis disability index and SF-36.
Setting: Five general practices in Cleveland.
Subjects: Of 767 patients identified, 546 completed the questionnaire and 435 were eligible and gave informed consent.
Main outcome measures: Scores on SF-36 and psoriasis disability index.
Results: The psoriasis disability index score was highly negatively correlated with all eight of the SF-36 health measures (P<0.0001 for each), and the manual social classes scored higher than the non-manual social classes (P<0.0001). The manual social class group scored significantly lower scores than the controls on all the SF-36 scales, and the non-manual group scored significantly lower for physical and mental role limitation (P<0.0004 and P = 0.026), mental health (P<0.0001), energy and vitality (P<0.0004), and health perception (P<0.0001). Also, the manual group had poorer health perception on five of the SF-36 variables when compared with the non-manual group.
Conclusions: Patients with psoriasis have an overall lower perception of their quality of life than healthy controls, and those in the lower social classes suffer a greater degree of disability from their disease than the higher social classes.

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