Childhood vitiligo impacts emotional health of parents: a prospective, cross-sectional study of quality of life for primary caregivers

Abstract

Background/objectives: Individuals with vitiligo have an increased risk of depression, anxiety, social isolation and detrimental effects on body image/self-esteem. However, assessments of quality of life (QoL) impact have not focused on caregivers of children with vitiligo. To address this, we determined the QoL impact in parents of children with vitiligo to assess the relationship between QoL parameters and disease duration, location, and severity. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study involving 123 parents of children diagnosed with vitiligo for at least 3 months, and who presented to the pediatric dermatology clinic of a major United States children's hospital. Parents completed a demographics survey, Quality of Life in a Child's Chronic Disease Questionnaire (QLCCDQ) and Family Dermatology Life Quality Index (FDLQI) to assess QoL measures. The lower the QLCCDQ score and higher the FLDQI score, the more quality of life is impaired. Results: Subject age ranged from 20 to 57, and 13.9% received mental health intervention. QLCCDQ emotional domain scores were most impaired, and severity and location of disease impacted these scores. FDLQI scores decreased as children age, indicating overall parent wellbeing increased as children age. Conclusions: Childhood vitiligo has great emotional impact on the quality of life of caregivers. Recognizing this will enable dermatologist who primarily care for these patients to incorporate care giver specific interventions during clinical visits. Emotional domain scores for parents of children with vitiligo were the most impaired as much or more than of those seen in parents of children with chronic stable medical disease such as type 1 diabetes and asthma.

Psychosocial Effects of Vitiligo: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Caregiver (e.g., parents, sibling, spouse) burden and associated factors were discussed in ten articles [ 20 , 24 , 53 , 64 , 86 , 103 , 111 , 121 , 139 , 172 ], although only four provided prevalence rates [ 64 , 86 , 103 , 111 ] for aspects of psychosocial burden. Overall QoL among caregivers was impaired, with depression, anxiety, emotional distress, and impaired social life commonly mentioned.…”

Anxiety and depression in pediatric patients with vitiligo and alopecia areata and their parents: A cross‐sectional controlled study

“…For example, in one study, the severity of vitiligo in adolescents was observed to affect QoL negatively 16 while two other studies including children and adolescents reported no relationship between QoL and the body surface area 36 and vitiligo severity 15 . According to another study in which the effect of childhood vitiligo on parents' QoL was examined, as the area of involvement of vitiligo increased, the parental QoL decreased 37 . In the current study, we found no correlation between disease severity and the QoL of patients or parents.…”

Health‐related quality of life in paediatric patients with vitiligo: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…The Northern Hospital, Melbourne, Vic., Australia, 2 Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Vic., Australia, 3 Department of Dermatology, AP-HP, Henri Mondor Hospital, UPEC, Cr eteil, France, 4 EpiDermE, Universit e Paris-Est Cr eteil (UPEC), Cr eteil, France, 5 Chroma Dermatology, Pigment and Skin of Colour Centre, Melbourne, Vic., Australia, 6 Department of Dermatology, The Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Vic., Australia, 7 Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic., Australia *Correspondence: M. Rodrigues. E-mail: dr.rodrigues@gmail.com…”