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Health-Related Quality of Life Measures in Atopic Dermatitis: A Critical Appraisal

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Abstract

Health-related quality of life (HrQoL) reflects the part of quality of life (QoL) that is influenced by health and disease and is a complex, multidimensional construct. Measuring HrQoL allows assessing benefits of interventions from the patient’s perspective. The vast majority of atopic dermatitis (AD) clinical trials do not assess HrQoL or do not report HrQoL data. If they do, it is unclear whether the measures used have adequate validity, reliability and responsiveness for AD. This is of particular concern where dermatology-specific rather than AD-specific measures are used.

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Abbreviations

AD:

Atopic dermatitis

COS:

Core outcome set

DIF:

Differential item functioning

DLQI:

Dermatology Life Quality Index

HOME:

Harmonising Outcome Measures for Eczema

HrQoL:

Health-related quality of life

IDQoL:

Infant’s Dermatitis Quality of Life Index

QoL:

Quality of life

QoLIAD:

Quality of Life Index for Atopic Dermatitis

RCT:

Randomized controlled trial

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Conflict of Interest

Christian Apfelbacher is a member of the executive committee of the Harmonising Outcome Measures for Eczema (HOME) initiative.

Daniel Heinl is a member of the Harmonising Outcome Measures for Eczema (HOME) initiative.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Sociology, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Regensburg, Dr.-Gessler-Str. 17, 93051, Regensburg, Germany

    Christian Apfelbacher & Daniel Heinl

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  1. Christian Apfelbacher
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  2. Daniel Heinl
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Correspondence to Christian Apfelbacher.

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Apfelbacher, C., Heinl, D. Health-Related Quality of Life Measures in Atopic Dermatitis: A Critical Appraisal. Curr Derm Rep 4, 155–158 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13671-015-0122-5

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