Effect of melasma on quality of life in a sample of women living in southern Brazil

Effect of melasma on quality of life in a sample of women living in southern Brazil

Background  Melasma can cause a significant effect on individual emotional well‐being. Melasma Quality of Life Scale (MELASQoL) is a specific questionnaire elaborated to assess the burden of melasma on patient's quality of life. Objective  To evaluate the clinical aspects, severity and the infl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Vol. 22; no. 6; pp. 655 - 662
Main Authors: Freitag, FM, Cestari, TF, Leopoldo, LR, Paludo, P, Boza, JC
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-06-2008
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Brazil - epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
hyperpigmentation
Melanosis - epidemiology
Melanosis - ethnology
Melanosis - psychology
melasma
Middle Aged
Prevalence
Quality of Life
questionnaire
scale
Surveys and Questionnaires
Brazil
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Summary:Background  Melasma can cause a significant effect on individual emotional well‐being. Melasma Quality of Life Scale (MELASQoL) is a specific questionnaire elaborated to assess the burden of melasma on patient's quality of life. Objective  To evaluate the clinical aspects, severity and the influence of melasma on daily living of a sample of Brazilian women. Methods  Cross‐sectional study that enrolled 85 women with melasma older than 15 years of age. Trained investigators asked 55 questions to collect epidemiological and clinical data. The disease severity was clinically assessed using Melasma Area and Severity Index (MASI). Patients answered the Portuguese version of 10‐item MELASQoL scale without coaching. Results  The mean ± SD age was 41.1 ± 6.8 years, and the mean ± SD of MELASQoL score was 37.5 ± 15.2 (median, 35). Patients with previous psychiatric diagnosis had significantly higher MELASQoL scores (mean, 42.8; SD, 13.6) than patients without this antecedent (mean, 35.4; SD, 15.4; P < 0.05). Patients with less than 8 years of school attendance also had significantly higher MELASQoL score (mean, 44; SD, 16.9) than more graduated ones (mean, 34.4; SD, 13.5; P < 0.05). The mean ± SD MASI was 10.6 ± 6.6 (median, 10.2). There was no correlation between MASI and MELASQoL. Conclusions  This study confirms that MELASQoL‐BP is easy to administer, adds important information about the impact of melasma on South American women's life and, finally, contributes to building evidence on the validity, reliability and cultural adaptation of the Portuguese language MELASQoL version.
Bibliography:istex:F37CDC9D483DCEDA62C4D66BFED3963E968CC48D
ark:/67375/WNG-BRFGSG6P-P
ArticleID:JDV2472
SourceType-Other Sources-1
content type line 63
ObjectType-Editorial-2
ObjectType-Commentary-1
ISSN:0926-9959
1468-3083
DOI:10.1111/j.1468-3083.2007.02472.x