Clinical Meaning in Skin-specific Quality of Life Instruments: A Comparison of the Dermatology Life Quality Index and Skindex Banding Systems

摘要

Clinical meaning can be assigned to scores of health status measures by usingavariety of approaches. The anchor-based approach involves determining the difference on a quality of life (QOL) scale that corresponds to a self-reported small but important change on a global scale given concomitantly, which serves as an independent anchor. This article focuses on the anchor-based banding approach and reviews methods to assign clinical meaning to QOL measures, specifically the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and Skindex. This article also includes pilot data that compares the DLQI and Skindex using these previously validated banding systems.