The Impact of Infantile Atopic Dermatitis on Patients' and their Families' Quality of Life

Background Atopic dermatitis (AD) is detrimental to the infants' and their families' quality of life. We aimed to study the disease effects on Iranian infants and their families applying the infants' dermatitis quality of life index (IDQOL), and the dermatitis family impact questionnaires (DFI). Materials and Methods Questionnaires (DFI and IDQOL) were translated into Persian and retranslated into English. Three experts assessed the content validity of the questionnaires by evaluating the relevance and transparency of the tools. Test-re-test was used to evaluate the questionnaires reliability. The reliability and internal consistency of the IDQOL and DFI were accessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient which was 0.74. The construct validity of the questionnaires was assessed using the Pearson correlation index to evaluate convergent and divergent validity. 50 Infants with AD fulfilling the criteria as well as their parents entered the study in Mashhad, Iran, in 2017. An independent-sample t-test was used to compare mean scores and one-way ANOVA was used to analyze other data. Results Intense itching (64%), taking one to more than two hours to get the child to sleep (52%), and three to more than five hours of infant sleep disturbance (34%) were significant. Family expenses (70%), and emotional stress (68%) affected the families' quality of life prominently. There were significant differences between the average DFI scores and other allergic diseases, both among infants suffering from AD (p = 0.04), and their families (p = 0.03). Conclusion The Persian versions of the questionnaires (DFI and IDQOL) have validly and reliably measured both groups' quality of life. They experienced remarkable disturbances in their quality of life.