Quality of life in infants with atopic dermatitis and their families

Milena Ražnatović Djurović; Janko Janković; Anđa Ćirković; Vesna Tomić Spirić; Nataša Maksimović; Zorica Sojević Timotijević; Danica Vukićević; Zlatica Mirković; Leonida Vitković; Slavenka Janković

doi:10.5114/ada.2020.93385

Quality of life in infants with atopic dermatitis and their families

Postepy Dermatol Alergol. 2020 Feb;37(1):66-72. doi: 10.5114/ada.2020.93385. Epub 2020 Mar 9.

Affiliations

¹ Clinic of Dermatology and Venereology, Clinical Centre of Montenegro, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro.
² Institute of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
³ Institute of Medical Statistics and Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
⁵ Clinic for Allergology and Immunology, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia.
⁶ Institute of Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
⁷ Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Priština, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia.
⁸ Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Priština, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia.
⁹ Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Priština, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia.
¹⁰ Institute of Histology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Priština, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia.

Abstract

Introduction: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is the most common chronic inflammatory skin disease, with a significant effect on quality of life (QoL).

Aim: To evaluate the impact of AD on QoL of Montenegrin infants and their parents and to identify predictors affecting their QoL.

Material and methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted between August 2017 and July 2018 and included 186 infants with AD aged 0-4 years and their parents. The severity of disease was measured by the Three-Item Severity (TIS) score, while QoL was assessed with the Infants' Dermatitis Quality of Life Index (IDQOL) and the Dermatitis Family Impact (DFI) questionnaire.

Results: The mean overall scores were 14.72 for IDQOL and 17.78 for DFI. The positive correlation was observed between AD severity and both the IDQOL and DFI scores (r = 0.61, p < 0.001 and r = 0.67, p < 0.001, respectively). The highest-scoring IDQOL items were "itching and scratching", and "child's mood". Poorer infants' QoL was associated with more serious AD (B = 2.56; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.08-3.04), concomitant atopic disease (B = 3.86; 95% CI: 1.78-5.94), family history of atopic disease (B = 3.80; 95% CI: 1.84-5.77), older age of the child (B = 1.14; 95% CI: 0.20-2.07) and older age of the parent (B = 0.28; 95% CI: 0.04-0.53). Similarly, parents had poorer QoL if their infants had more severe AD (B = 2.56; 95% CI: 2.14-2.87), another atopic disease (B = 2.91; 95% CI: 0.99-4.84) or family history of atopic disease (B = 4.33; 95% CI: 2.57-6.09).

Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that AD has a significant negative impact on infants' QoL as well as on QoL of their parents.

Keywords: Dermatitis Family Impact; Infants’ Dermatitis Quality of Life Index; Montenegro; atopic dermatitis; family impact; infants; quality of life.