Quality of life and pemphigus

INTRODUCTION: Pemphigus is a frequent chronic bullous dermatosis in Morocco that predominantly affects young women. It requires serious therapeutic management and often repeated hospitalizations. The purpose of this study was to assess the particular impact of pemphigus on quality of life by comparing the quality of life in patients suffering from pemphigus with that of the general population using a generic instrument of measure of health related quality of life: the SF-36, in association with a questionnaire exploring the impact of the disease on self perception, social relationship and behaviour. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: A French version of the SF-36 underwent 2 translations from French to Moroccan dialect, then two retrograde translations. After a pre-test, the questionnaire survey was administered by the same investigator to 30 patients who suffered from pemphigus, followed-up in the Ibn Rochd UHC in Casablanca and to 60 healthy adults. The two samples were paired according to age and sex. RESULTS: In the pemphigus group, there was a significant decrease of mean scores of all the SF-36 dimensions, except for physical pain and alteration in general status of health. The greatest alteration concerned the impact on physical and emotional status (p<0.00001) and the smallest alteration concerned the perception of general health (p=0.02). The factors influencing this impact were: profession, face involvement and extent of lesions. Other results concerning the psychosocial impact of pemphigus are presented. CONCLUSION: Our study confirmed that pemphigus is responsible for great alterations in health related quality of life. Therefore, the management of this disease must take into account its impact on various fields of life of the patients.