Quality of life in patients with toenail onychomycosis

Abstract

Onychomycosis is a common, chronic fungal nail infection that can have a significant negative impact on patients' physical and social functioning and emotional well-being. This study was undertaken to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with toenail onychomycosis. The Onychomycosis QoL questionnaire (ONYCHO), as a disease-specific instrument, and the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) as a generic instrument, were applied in 140 consecutive patients affected by onychomycosis. Women and patients who were experiencing toenail onychomycosis for more than 2 years were reporting worse disease-specific HRQoL. The patients working in blue-collar occupations and patients with greater involvement of individual nails were more affected by onychomycosis regarding symptoms. The results of this study confirm that although onychomycosis is not a life-threatening disease, it can significantly reduce patients' QoL.

Patient-Reported Outcomes in Onychomycosis: A Review of Psychometrically Evaluated Instruments in Assessing Treatment Effectiveness

“…Eight studies describe baseline characteristics of onychomycosis patients using PRO instruments [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17], while 8 other studies use nonvalidated instruments or instruments nonspecific to onychomycosis (Table 1) [7,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]. Ten studies used PRO instruments to evaluate onychomycosis treatments (Table 2) [26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35].…”

“…Compared to controls, onychomycosis patients had significantly poorer QOL in general health perception, bodily pain, mental health, social functioning, health concern [18,19], physical appearance [13,14,17,18,19,25], and physical functioning, such as limitations with standing and working with one's fingers [12,14,18,19,20,21,23]. Onychomycosis patients were more self-conscious [17,18,19,22,25] and embarrassed [12,13,17,18,19,21,23], feared spread of transmission to other nails or other people [12,13,14,22,25], and experienced pain [12,13,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. In using the validated, dermatology-specific instrument Skindex-29, onychomycosis QOL impairment was worse than other nail disorders [7], comparable to nonmelanoma skin cancer and benign growths [17], and better than eczema and body psoriasis [17].…”

The Impact of Onychomycosis on Quality of Life: A Systematic Review of the Available Literature

“…The OnyCOE-t TM is also derived from the Lubeck instrument [11]. The Onycho-QoL Questionnaire is also able to be used in both finger- and toenails and is available in multiple languages [40, 41]. The NailQoL is a combination of the Skindex-29 and 10 additional questions [7].…”

Mykologie – ein Update. Teil 1: Dermatomykosen: Erreger, Epidemiologie und Pathogenese

“…Der Einfluss der Onychomykose auf die Lebensqualität wurde kürzlich bei 140 polnischen Patienten untersucht [33]. Sowohl Frauen als auch generell Patienten, die bereits seit mehr als zwei Jahren unter einer Zehennagel-Onychomykose litten, wiesen eine schlechtere krankheitsspezifische Lebensqualität auf.…”