Abstract
Background: Vitiligo is a chronic, progressive condition of skin depigmentation that has a negative impact on quality of life.
Aim of the study: To validate a novel, low-burden tool to more accurately assess the burden of disease on those affected.
Methods: The VitBOD was designed as a ten question tool using visual analog scales to assess various physical, mental and emotional domains of health specific to vitiligo. 90 subjects with dermatologist-confirmed vitiligo agreed to complete the self-administered VitBOD questionnaire along with the previously validated Short Form-36 (SF-36).
Results: 67 fully completed questionnaires were returned. VitBOD scores were transformed to fit the direction of the SF-36 for statistical analysis. Median overall scores were significantly lower for VitBOD as shown by the paired t-test (75.3 vs 85, p=0.015). VitBOD showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.9). Vitality, social, and mental health domains correlated positively with SF-36.
Conclusion: VitBOD can reliably measure burden of disease in vitiligo as well as the SF-36 with distinct advantages being ease and speed of use along with disease-specificity. Testing in broader patient populations would be useful for further validation.