Happiness Behind the Scenes: Associations between Heuristic Happiness and Related Dimensions in Skin Diseases

Positive health approaches, such as happiness, are largely unexplored in medicine, including dermatology. Taking into consideration the various happiness measures, the aims of this cross-sectional study were to assess this concept using a 1-item heuristic happiness question and its related dimensions (Satisfaction with Life, Positive and Negative Affect, Quality of Life, and Compound Psychological Capital) in outpatients with different skin diseases between December 2019 and June 2020, and to examine the link between these dimensions. Overall, 414 dermatological patients were included: 67 with psoriasis, 84 atopic eczema, 10 mastocytosis, 19 nummular eczema, 84 malignant melanoma and 150 keratinocyte carcinoma. Comparing the skin diseases, differences were observed for heuristic happiness, Positive Affect, and some domains of Quality of Life and Compound Psychological Capital. Analysing the relationship between heuristic happiness and other happiness measures, the data revealed moderate to strong correlations (r = 0.30–0.46, p