Quality of life in psoriasis and its relationship to clinical severity- An Original Research

Psoriasis affects approximately 2% of the world's population, affecting both men and women. The present study was conducted to assess the effects of psoriasis severity PASI on the patient’s quality of life PDI.The present study was conducted on 100 cases of Psoriasis of both genders. An assessment of psoriasis was made using the psoriasis area and severity index (PASI). The PASI score was calculated by subjective assessment of 3 factors: erythema (E), induration (I), and scaling (S). The majority of the patients (22%) were in the age group of 61-70 years. There was female preponderance (58%) while male patients constituted 42% of the study group. The M:F ratio was 1:1.4. 38% participants were regular tobacco users while 22% and 12% participants smoked and drank alcohol respectively. 52% patients had psoriasis for 0-5 years followed by 27% patients that had psoriasis for 6-10 years, 6% for 11-15 years, 8% for 16-20 years, 5% for 21-25 years and 2% for >25 years. The severity of psoriasis was graded according to the PASI score. 40% patients had mild psoriasis (PASI<7), 26% of patients had psoriasis of moderate severity (PASI 7 -12) while 3 4% had severe type (PASI>12). The mean PASI score was 9.17±4.67. The quality of Life (QoL) was most affected in daily activities (90%), followed by work (85%), leisure (72%), problems with treatment (68%) and the least affected was in personal relations (65%). Severity of psoriasis as per PASI has no correlation with psoriasis related Quality of Life (QoL) as per PDI in our study. The quality of Life (QoL) was most affected in daily activities and it was also observed that all aspects of (QoL) was affected more by patients having psoriasis of less severity on sensitive sites of head/neck and hand/foot as compared to patients having psoriasis of more severity on other parts of the body.