Prurigo nodularis patients experience decreased quality of life, economic burden

Patients with prurigo nodularis experience significant impairment to their quality of life and individual economic burden, according to a study.

“Prurigo nodularis (PN) is an inflammatory skin disease characterized by symmetrically distributed, severely pruritic nodules commonly found on the trunk and extensor surfaces of the extremities,” Katherine A. Whang, MD, of the department of dermatology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “The hallmark of PN is a severe, unrelenting itch that is higher in intensity and frequency and associated with a greater decease in the quality of life (QoL) compared with other pruritic dermatoses, such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.”

Researchers conducted a cohort study of 36 PN patients, using the 15-question Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) questionnaire, with control data from 4,187 subjects who responded to the Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health from 2002 and 2003.

The HUI3 questions included eight domains of function: ambulation, cognition, dexterity, emotion, hearing, pain, speech and vision.

Patients in the PN group had an average HUI3 score significantly lower than the control arm (mean ± standard deviation, 0.52 ± 0.06 vs. 0.86 ± 0.003).

Worse health performance, as well as decreased functional domain scores in emotion, cognition and pain were also prevalent in the PN group.

A financial impact of $323,292 per person and a U.S. societal burden of $38.8 billion was also found in the analysis.

“The significant U.S. societal economic burden of this disease and the comparable QoL reduction, as observed in other chronic diseases, motivate further research on PN, including the investigation of better management and treatment for this disease,” the authors wrote.