JLE

European Journal of Dermatology

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Development of a disease-specific instrument to measure quality of life in patients with alopecia areata Volume 22, issue 4, July-August 2012

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Authors
Department of Dermatology, Kyoto University, 54 Kawahara-cho Shogoin, Sakyo-ku Kyoto 606-8507, Japan, Department of Dermatology, University of Luebeck, Germany, Department of Dermatology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany

Alopecia areata (AA) is a common hair loss disorder that frequently follows a chronic course. Although AA is apparently associated with disturbance of quality of life (QoL), no disease-specific instrument to measure the QoL has been developed. This study was conducted to develop a disease-specific self-administered instrument to measure AA patients’ QoL (AAQ). A two-step cross-sectional study was conducted. Items were generated from qualitative interviews with five patients with AA (two men and three women, age 28 ± 6.4years). Then, a preliminary questionnaire was produced and delivered to the patients (n = 122). The AAQ was examined in terms of statistical performance. The AAQ included 7 items in the following three subscales: ‘restriction of activity’, ‘concealment’ and ‘adaptation’. The reliability of internal consistency was fair with Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.59-81 for each subscale. Confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis demonstrated that the AAQ had good construct validity. Interestingly, the AAQ was only correlated with subjective severity scores as rated by the patients, but not with objective disease severity assessed by investigators.