1. Health-related quality of life impact of scabies in the Solomon Islands.
- Author
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Lake SJ, Engelman D, Sokana O, Nasi T, Boara D, Marks M, Whitfeld MJ, Romani L, Kaldor JM, Steer AC, and Carvalho N
- Subjects
- Adult, Child, Humans, Prevalence, Quality of Life, Severity of Illness Index, Surveys and Questionnaires, Scabies epidemiology, Skin Diseases
- Abstract
Background: Scabies causes intense itching and skin lesions. A small number of studies have shown that scabies impacts health-related quality of life (HRQoL), but no studies have been conducted in the Pacific region. We assessed the impact of scabies on HRQoL in a high-prevalence setting using the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). We also assessed the validity of these tools in a Pacific Island population., Methods: The study was conducted in the Solomon Islands. Participants with and without skin disease were randomly selected. HRQoL indices were scored on a scale of 0-30., Results: We surveyed 1051 adults (91 with scabies) and 604 children (103 with scabies). Scabies had a small impact on HRQoL, with a median DLQI score of 2 (interquartile range [IQR] 0-6) and a CDLQI score of 2 (IQR 0-4). Scores increased linearly with severity. The greatest impact on QoL was due to itch, sleep disturbance and impacts on education and employment., Conclusions: Scabies has a small but measurable impact on HRQoL. The DLQI and CDLQI scores were discriminated between the skin-related QoL of patients with scabies and the control group, indicating that these tools are appropriate to measure skin-related QoL in the Solomon Islands., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.)
- Published
- 2022
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