Evaluating the quality of life in patients with ulcerative oral lesions

Oral mucosal lesions can affect patient’s quality of life (QOL). In this evaluation, Persian version of Chronic Oral Mucosal Disease Questionnaire (COMDQ) was used to assess participants’ QOL.

This cross-sectional study was done during 2015-2016 in School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. 95 participants with pemphigus vulgaris (PV), oral recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS), and oral lichen planus (OLP) enrolled is this study. The Persian version of COMDQ with 26 questions and 4 domains was used for assessing QOL. The data were analyzed in SPSS software. P-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Independent t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), andTukey's test were used to assess scores of QOL.

The final QOL scores were 45.95 ± 16.31, 53.38 ± 17.64, and 50.02 ± 17.36 for men, women, and all patients, respectively. Patients with OLP and RAS had good QOL, but patients with PV reported lower level of QOL (moderate). None of the COMDQ domains showed significant correlation with gender except pain and functional limitation and overall QOL score.

The result of this evaluation revealed a good QOL; considering the type of oral disease, QOL ranged between moderate for patients with PV and good for patients with OLP and RAS.