Background: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic skin disease that causes significant burden for patients in multiple aspects of their life. However, the details regarding the impact on factors aside from skin are limited.
Objective: We explored patient perspectives around the impact of HS on personal health and how that affects a patient's health care decision making.
Methods: Individual, semi-structured, virtual interviews were conducted with adults that have HS by a trained medical student. The interviews were performed over a private, video conference platform. English speaking individuals between the ages of 18-45 with a diagnosis of HS for at least 1 year were invited to participate in the study. The transcripts were coded by the medical student and a research assistant and discrepancies were resolved by group consensus. This study followed the reporting guidelines of the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research.
Results: 23 participants were interviewed in which 21 participants (91%) were female and 2 participants (9%) were male. The mean age was 31.2 years. Patients expressed an increased awareness of their personal health because of their HS, including considering HS with respect to what they ate, the medications they took, the physicians they sought, and their family planning decision. Some participants stated that HS made them more likely to receive vaccines while others described the two are unrelated.
Conclusions: Patients with HS considered their skin disease when making medical decisions broadly. Many specifically considered their disease when making decisions regarding health maintenance and immunizations though some did not consider the two related.