No real surprises here – this study finding that ocular rosacea affects sufferers’ quality of life.
Quality of life impact of ocular rosacea, Tanya Dannemann, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, United States; Kimberly Nicholson, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States; Justin Estaris, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States; Suephy Chen, MD, MS, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States
Many people with rosacea also experience ocular symptoms such as watery, bloodshot, irritated, burning or stinging eyes. The National Rosacea Society has termed these symptoms ocular rosacea which can coexist with the other cutaneous subtypes: erythematotelangiectatic, papulopustular, and phymatous.
We hypothesized that the quality of life (QOL) impact of patients with cutaneous rosacea varies depending on the presence or lack of ocular rosacea. QOL impact was measured using RosaQoL, a validated rosacea-specific QOL instrument, administered by telephone to rosacea patients from Emory University.
Answers to RosaQoL questions were structured on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (all the time) and quantified the symptomatic (sx), emotional (em), and functional (fx) impact of rosacea on QOL. We calculated RosaQoL scores for each of the 3 domains (sx, em, fx) and determined QOL differences among patients with and without ocular rosacea using the ManneWhitney test. Of 628 patients called, 135 completed RosaQoL, 124 declined to participate, and 369 could not be reached. The only statistically significant difference between participants and non-participants was age (56.5 vs 51.3 years, respectively, P <.05). The two statistically significant demographic differences between patients with and without ocular rosacea were marital status and age. Forty-five percent of patients who were single and never married had ocular rosacea as compared to 75% for patients who were married or living with a partner and 69% for those reporting ‘‘other’’ (P = .031). In addition, patients reporting ocular rosacea had a mean age of 59.0 versus 51.3 for those without ocular rosacea (P = .003). Among patients who completed the RosaQoL, 70% (94/135) had ocular rosacea in addition to their cutaneous rosacea. There was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of ocular involvement between the three cutaneous subtypes.
Patients with ocular rosacea had worse QOL scores for both the sx and em constructs compared to patients without ocular rosacea (2.95 vs 2.27, P\.001 for sx; 2.93 vs 2.60, P = .03 for em). The presence or absence of ocular rosacea did not have a statistically significant functional QOL impact. A majority of patients in our survey with cutaneous rosacea report ocular complaints. Ocular rosacea appears to negatively impact a patient’s quality of life primarily in symptomatology and emotional burden of disease.
Commercial support: None identified
Poster Abstract P1309, American Academy of Dermatology, 65th Annual Meeting February 2-6, 2007, Washington, DC. Published in Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology Volume 56, Number 2.
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