Psoriafarm Bizkaia Study: main features

Introduction: Psoriasis is a chronic illness with a significant impact on self-confidence and quality of life. The best way to assess its impact is to carry out patient-centered surveys. Community pharmacies are is a very suitable place for these surveys because they serve all kinds of patients regardless of the disease severity or the treatment status. Objectives: To know socio demographic variables, location and type of psoriasis, evolution time, comorbidities, patient advocacy groups membership, patient physician relationship, knowledge about psoriasis. Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional study using 3 questionnaires: SF-36, Skindex-29 and Psoriafarm. The preliminary data are presented. Results: 47 pharmacists in 36 pharmacies took part in the survey, collecting 200 valid answers (52.0% women and 48.0% men). 60.5% had been diagnosed over 10 years ago, 78.0% presented moderate or mild affection, and the most common type was plaque psoriasis (53.0%). 37.0% presented other chronic disease. 84.0% stated that symptoms worsened with stress and 49.5% had suffered an emotional disorder in the previous year. 56.5% said that they did not have enough information regarding their illness and 58.0% were satisfied with medical care. Conclusions: Data about the type of psoriasis are consistent with other surveys in different settings. Emotional factors have a significant influence on psoriasis symptoms. Although the patients-physicians relationship obtains a high score, patients demand more information on the illness and treatments, which could be provided in the pharmacy, although there are virtually no studies regarding interventions in this setting.