TY - JOUR
T1 - Skin Distress Screening
T2 - Validation of an Efficient One-question Tool
AU - Blom, Tirza
AU - Fieten, Karin B.
AU - Kemperman, Patrick M. J. H.
AU - Spillekom-van Koulil, Saskia
AU - Dikmans, Rieky E. G.
N1 - Funding Information: We thank the patients who participated in the study, and the staff at the Dermatology Department at Amsterdam University Medical Centers and the Skin Medical Center for cooperating with this study. We also thank the Dutch skin disease patient association (Skin Patients Netherlands) for their support. Research grant received from the National Health Care Institute the Netherlands. Funding Information: Research grant received from the National Health Care Institute the Netherlands. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, Medical Journals/Acta D-V. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023/5/10
Y1 - 2023/5/10
N2 - Skin diseases are often accompanied by physical, emotional and social problems, which may negatively impact health-related quality of life and result in skin-related distress. It is essential to identify patients with skin-related distress within the short time-window of an outpatient dermatological visit. Therefore the one-question screening tool, the Distress Thermometer adjusted for skin conditions, was validated in a cross-sectional questionnaire study. In 2 medical centres in Amsterdam, 214 patients with a chronic skin disease were invited to complete the Distress Thermometer and additional health-related quality of life questionnaires. To validate the Distress Thermometer, the Skindex29 was used as gold standard. To test test-retest reliability, the questionnaires were answered at 2 different time-points. Severely impaired health-related quality of life was present in 30% of respondents according to the Skindex29 using a cut-off score of 44. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses yielded an area under the curve of 0.813 (standard error 0.04, 95% confidence interval 0.74-0.89). A cut-off score ≥ 4 on the Distress Thermometer provided the optimal ratio of sensitivity (90.7%) to specificity (56.1%). Therefore, for general practice, a cut-off score of ≥ 4 on the Distress Thermometer is advised. The Distress Thermometer seems to be a rapid, valid and reliable screening tool for identifying skin-related distress in patients with a chronic skin disease in the outpatient dermatology setting.
AB - Skin diseases are often accompanied by physical, emotional and social problems, which may negatively impact health-related quality of life and result in skin-related distress. It is essential to identify patients with skin-related distress within the short time-window of an outpatient dermatological visit. Therefore the one-question screening tool, the Distress Thermometer adjusted for skin conditions, was validated in a cross-sectional questionnaire study. In 2 medical centres in Amsterdam, 214 patients with a chronic skin disease were invited to complete the Distress Thermometer and additional health-related quality of life questionnaires. To validate the Distress Thermometer, the Skindex29 was used as gold standard. To test test-retest reliability, the questionnaires were answered at 2 different time-points. Severely impaired health-related quality of life was present in 30% of respondents according to the Skindex29 using a cut-off score of 44. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses yielded an area under the curve of 0.813 (standard error 0.04, 95% confidence interval 0.74-0.89). A cut-off score ≥ 4 on the Distress Thermometer provided the optimal ratio of sensitivity (90.7%) to specificity (56.1%). Therefore, for general practice, a cut-off score of ≥ 4 on the Distress Thermometer is advised. The Distress Thermometer seems to be a rapid, valid and reliable screening tool for identifying skin-related distress in patients with a chronic skin disease in the outpatient dermatology setting.
KW - anxiety
KW - depression
KW - distress thermometer
KW - health-related quality of life
KW - skin diseases
KW - validation study
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85158867983&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.2340/actadv.v103.4590
DO - https://doi.org/10.2340/actadv.v103.4590
M3 - Article
C2 - 37165685
SN - 0001-5555
VL - 103
SP - adv4590
JO - Acta Dermato-Venereologica
JF - Acta Dermato-Venereologica
M1 - adv4590
ER -