Rosacea

RosaQoL, a Rosacea-Specific Quality of Life Instrument

Application

A quantitative measure of disease burden in rosacea patients.
The instrument may be useful as a secondary or coprimary end point in addition to an objective severity rating by clinicians for clinical trials testing new therapies.
RosaQoL may be useful as an end point for epidemiologic and burden of disease studies.

Technical Summary

Rosacea is a chronic skin condition with many symptoms that can be both frustrating and socially stigmatizing to patients. Rosacea affects up to 10% of the general population. There are 4 subtypes of rosacea as defined by the National Rosacea Society, each with highly variable presentations. Most importantly, the symptoms and visual manifestations of the disease can significantly affect a patient's quality of life (QOL).

Current treatments for many of the symptoms of rosacea, including flushing and phymatous changes, are insufficient. While a standard grading system for measuring the severity of clinical symptoms has recently been established by the National Rosacea Society, studies have demonstrated that objective clinical parameters of skin disease are often poorly correlated with QOL impact and that most physicians underestimate the impact of skin disease on a patient's QOL.

An instrument that can measure and quantify rosacea-related QOL would be helpful for both physicians and researchers. In addition, pharmaceutical and biotech companies could benefit from a reliable and validated instrument to measure patient-reported therapeutic impact over time. Dr. Chen's group has developed such an instrument, called RosaQoL, which is specific for issues related to rosacea and is sensitive to changes in the disease over time.