Which quality of life scale should be used to evaluate acne vulgaris patients? CADI or DLQI? A prospective study

Abstract

Aim: Acne vulgaris is one of the most common diseases that affects quality of life. While the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) is the most frequently used life quality index for dermatologic disorders, the Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADI) is an acne-spesific quality of life scale. The aim of this study was to determine which scale should be more appropriate and practical to evaluate the quality of life in acne patients and to compare the differences between two scales. Methods: Acne scores of 273 patients who were admitted to the dermatology outpatient clinic between December 2015 and November 2016 were determined by the Global Acne Grading System (GAGS) (range 0 to 44). The DLQI (range 0 to 30) and CADI scores (range 0 to 20) were calculated to evaluate the effect of patients' quality of life. Results: The mean GAGS score of the patients was 20.3, and the mean of CADI score was 6.1, while the mean of DLQI was 6.0. There was a significant positive correlation between total GAGS score and CADI and DLQI (r=0.639, p<0.001). When the relationship between the distribution of acne lesions and quality of life scales was evaluated; CADI score was significantly higher in the forehead localization group than in the non-forehead localization group (p=0.012), and the CADI and DLQI scores were higher in the upper back group than the group without back localization (p=0.001and p= 0.017 respectively). Conclusion: In our study, it was observed that the DLQI and CADI scales were not superior to each other in evaluating the quality of life in patients with acne. Besides, we think that the effect of quality of life on facial acne cases can be determined more clearly with CADI scale.