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Psychosocial well‐being of patients with skin diseases in general practice
Author(s) -
Verhoeven EWM,
Kraaimaat FW,
Van De Kerkhof PCM,
Van Weel C,
Duller P,
Van Der Valk PGM,
Van Den Hoogen HJM,
Bor JHJ,
Schers HJ,
Evers AWM
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of the european academy of dermatology and venereology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.655
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1468-3083
pISSN - 0926-9959
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3083.2007.02049.x
Subject(s) - psychosocial , medicine , disease , depression (economics) , comorbidity , population , quality of life (healthcare) , physical therapy , psychiatry , nursing , environmental health , economics , macroeconomics
Background Skin diseases are a substantial part of the problems dealt with by general practitioners. Although the psychosocial consequences of skin diseases in secondary care has been extensively studied, little is known about the psychosocial well‐being of patients with skin diseases in primary care. Objective To investigate the psychosocial well‐being of patients with skin diseases in primary care. Patients/methods Questionnaires about the psychosocial consequences of skin diseases were sent to patients with a skin disease who were registered within a research network (continuous morbidity registration) of general practices that continuously have recorded morbidity data since 1971. Questionnaires completed by 532 patients were eventually suitable for analyses. Results Compared with the general population, patients with skin diseases reported significantly lower scores for psychosocial well‐being. Furthermore, a lower psychosocial wellbeing was significantly related with higher levels of disease‐severity, lower disease‐related quality of life, longer disease duration, more comorbidity and more physical symptoms of itch, pain and fatigue. After demographic variables and comorbidity were controlled for, sequential regression analyses showed that disease duration, disease severity and physical symptoms (itch, pain and fatigue) were significant predictors of psychosocial well‐being. Conclusion The psychosocial well‐being of patients with skin diseases in primary care is lower than that of the general population. Special attention has to be directed to those patients with lowered psychosocial well‐being who might be at risk of developing severe psychosocial impairments such as clinical depression.