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AbstractThe Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study aims to characterize the worldwide prevalence and morbidity of major diseases, while PatientsLikeMe (PLM) is an online community providing patient-generated insights into lived experiences; for dermatologic conditions, quantitative comparisons of GBD and PLM data revealed expected demographic differences but also notable correlations, highlighting their potential as complementary data sources elucidating unmet patient needs and priorities.

BackgroundThere is limited measurement and reporting of quality of life (QoL) outcomes for patients with contact dermatitis (CD). ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to develop a standardized Contact Dermatitis Quality of Life index (CDQL) for adult patients. MethodsA list of 81 topics was compiled from a review of QoL measures used previously in CD research. A total of 2 rounds of web-based Delphi surveys were sent to physicians who registered to attend the 2018 American Contact Dermatitis Society meeting, asking that they rank the relevance of topics for measuring QoL in CD using a 4-point scale. Items met consensus for inclusion if at least 78% of respondents ranked them as relevant or very relevant, and their median score was ≥3.25. ResultsOf the 210 physicians contacted, 34 physicians completed the initial survey and 17 completed the follow-up survey. A total of 22 topics met consensus for inclusion in the CDQL, addressing symptoms, emotions, functions of daily living, social and physical functions, work/school functions, and treatment. ConclusionsThis study was limited by the following factors: few open-ended questions in the initial survey, a lack of direct patient feedback, and long survey length, which likely contributed to lower survey participation. The CDQL is a comprehensive, CD-specific QoL measure developed on the basis of expert consensus via a modified Delphi process to be used by physicians and other health care professionals who care for adult patients with contact dermatitis.

BackgroundThe global burden of skin disease may be reduced through research efforts focused on skin diseases with the highest reported disability-adjusted life years. ObjectiveThis study evaluates the representation of dermatologic conditions comprising the highest disability-adjusted life years in dermatology literature to identify areas that could benefit from greater research focus. MethodsThe top 10 skin disorders according to their respective disability-adjusted life years as per the 2013 Global Burden of Disease were identified using previous studies. The top 5 dermatology journals ranked by the 2019 h-index were also identified. A PubMed search of each journal was performed using individual skin disease terms. From 2015 to 2020, all indexed publications pertaining to each disease were recorded and compared to the total number of publications for each journal surveyed. ResultsA total of 19,727 papers were published in the 5 journals over the span of 2015-2020. Although melanoma ranked as the eighth highest in disability-adjusted life years, it had the highest representation in the literature (1995/19,727, 10.11%). Melanoma was followed in representation by psoriasis (1936/19,727, 9.81%) and dermatitis (1927/19,727, 9.77%). These 3 conditions comprised a total of 29.69% (5858/19,727) of the total publications, while the remaining 7 skin conditions were represented by a combined 6.79% (1341/19,727) of the total publications. ConclusionsThis research identifies gaps in the literature related to the top skin diseases contributing to the global burden of disease. Our study provides insight into future opportunities of focused research on less-studied skin diseases to potentially aid in reducing the global burden of skin disease.