Page 38 - JCBP-1-1

Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Quality of life in patients with atopic dermatitis

Table 1. Demographic characteristics and the DLQI average value
Variables Options Frequency Percentage Average value Standard deviation
Gender Male 30 28.30 1.72 0.45
Female 76 71.70
Age 25 and below 31 29.20 2.25 1.08
26–35 years old 37 34.90
36–45 years old 18 17.00
46 years old and above 20 18.90
Education level Middle school and below 21 19.80 1.95 0.59
University 69 65.10
Graduate student and above 16 15.10
Employment status Unemployed 45 42.50 0.58 0.5
Employed 61 57.50
Working environment Indoor 78 73.60 1.49 0.84
Outdoor 4 3.80
Both 24 22.60
Work nature Light 17 16.00 1.26 0.94
Intellectual 63 59.40
Manual 7 6.60
Heavy 19 17.90
Atopic comorbidities None 80 75.47 0.25 0.43
Exist 26 24.53
Abbreviation: DLQI: Dermatology life quality index.

and the result of this study was 7.73. The difference in Furthermore, anxiety and depression are currently
the DLQI average may be due to the varying severity of considered the most common psychological disorders
diseases among different subjects. The subjects of this in patients with AD. Recent investigations have shown
study are patients diagnosed in outpatient departments, a high prevalence of abnormal anxiety or abnormal
most of whom have relatively mild diseases. In contrast, depression observed in patients with AD (40%) compared
the proportion of moderate and severe patients in Tan et al. to the general population (17.5%) , and similar results are
[1]
(2021) accounts for 65.5%. Fuxench et al. (2018) sampled observed in this study showing that 40 patients (37.7%)
subjects from the GfK knowledge panel web panel, and it have abnormal anxiety or depression. In this study, there
had a balanced disease severity distribution. are only 4 cases (3.8%) with a previous diagnosis of anxiety
and 3 cases (2.8%) with a previous diagnosis of depression.
Due to health-care policy differences, the government
will reimburse a considerable proportion of the medical care A large proportion of AD patients with significantly
expenses of patients in China and Malaysia. At the same time, elevated HADS-A and HADS-D scores was not diagnosed
the research results of Fuxench et al. (2018) in the US did not with anxiety or depression, suggesting that a significant
mention the related impact of medical insurance policies. proportion of AD patients has psychological problems
The severity of AD is also affected by climate change. With but is undiagnosed and untreated. This phenomenon was
[1]
the increase in temperature and humidity, sweating will also observed in a study in the US . This finding suggests
increase, irritating the skin, and worsening AD. Ultraviolet that the physical and psychological health burden of AD
rays, pollen, and air pollutants have specific influences, too . is underappreciated, and it is necessary to pay attention
[29]
In our research and Fuxench et al.’s report, the time for these to screening for anxiety and depression symptoms in AD
patients to participate in the survey is any season of the year. patients and enhancing disease-related mental health
The impact of climate change is small, while the research education and knowledge about psychosocial comorbidities.
by Tan et al. (2021) was carried out from January to March, Our results suggest that the influencing factors of
the local rainy season with high temperatures and humidity, HADS-A are not related to demographic characteristics or
which would aggravate the disease severity of AD patients. medical factors (such as age, sex, and the existence of atopic

Volume 1 Issue 1 (2023) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.0956