Quality of life in a population of patients with hand eczema: a six-month follow-up study.

Hand eczema is a disease with a potentially profound effect on an individual’s life in terms of daily functioning and interpersonal relationships. Accordingly, methods for measuring health-related quality of life (QoL) are increasingly used to evaluate the effect of various treatments. In studies of skin diseases the most widely used dermatology-specific questionnaire is the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) (1). The various scales applied, in the context of skin diseases, were evaluated by Both et al. (2). Their paper, which evaluated the interpretability of the DLQI, revealed a need for reports concerning the minimal change of score that is relevant to the patients. A similar need was expressed in a review by Basra et al. (3). The aim of the present study was to explore potential factors related to a low health-related QoL among patients with hand eczema and to examine the responsiveness of the DLQI score to clinical changes.