These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Psychosocial well-being of patients with skin diseases in general practice.
    Author: Verhoeven EW, Kraaimaat FW, van de Kerkhof PC, van Weel C, Duller P, van der Valk PG, van den Hoogen HJ, Bor JH, Schers HJ, Evers AW.
    Journal: J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol; 2007 May; 21(5):662-8. PubMed ID: 17447981.
    Abstract:
    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.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]