Quality of life among adults with scabies: A community-based cross-sectional study in north-western Ethiopia.

Introduction: Scabies undermines quality of life through its highly disturbing disease symptoms, by distorting self-perception, and secondary to social stigma. Knowledge of its effect on quality of life in general and on specific aspects of day-to-day life is key to addressing the health needs of individual patients and to evaluating gains from community-based disease control interventions. Objectives: To measure the effect of scabies on the quality of life of people with the infestation. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in a scabies outbreak-affected district in north-western Ethiopia. The study involved 381 households and 86 adults with scabies. We used the ten-item Cardiff Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) tool to collect data. Cronbach's alpha value was used to determine the internal consistency of the Amharic version of the scale. Overall and Dermatology Life Quality (DLQ) domain specific mean scores were calculated. The association between sociodemographic characteristics and scabies-related life quality impairment was tested using Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Scabies moderately affected the quality of life of adults with scabies. The overall mean DLQI (mDLQI) score was 9.2 (SD = 7.6). 'Symptoms and feelings' and 'daily activity' DLQ domains had the highest mDLQI scores (3.5, SD = 1.9 and 2.2, SD = 2.5, respectively). 'Leisure activities' was the least affected domain 0.8 (SD = 1.1). In terms of severity, scabies had moderate or severe effect on DLQ of 54.7% of the participants and extremely severe effect was reported among 27% of the participants. However, no association was observed between sociodemographic characteristics and quality of life impairment. Conclusion: Quality of life was moderately impaired among people affected by scabies. Refocusing attention on management of disease symptoms, using standard scabies treatment, and providing psychosocial support to improve self-perception of people affected with scabies may help reduce quality of life impairment. Author summary: Scabies is a parasitic infestation of the outermost layer of the skin. Disease symptoms such as papular rash (mainly involving the crevices of the body), severe generalized itch and stigma attached to the infestation are believed to impair the quality of life of scabies patients. Despite the need for data, there is limited evidence about the relationship between scabies and quality of life. This study presents novel data on quality of life impairment associated with scabies and which aspects of patients' day-to-day lives are the most affected. This study was conducted in an outbreak-affected area of north-western Ethiopia where scabies had a moderate impact on the quality of life of the affected people. Disease symptoms and their psychosocial impact contributed the most to quality of life impairment. Participants in this study came from different sociodemographic backgrounds. Nonetheless, there were no major differences in DLQI scores by background characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]