Social participation in vitiligo patients and its association with quality of life

Vitiligo is a stigmatizing, chronic, and usually progressive skin disorder that affects patients' quality of life and can interfere with their social participation. There are no studies in developing countries focusing on this aspect. Hence, we assessed social participation in patients with vitiligo and its associations with Vitiligo Quality of Life (VitiQoL), Vitiligo Area Score Index (VASI), and demographic and clinical characteristics. This cross-sectional study was conducted between 2013-2014 on 170 patients, in Razi Hospital, Tehran, Iran. In the pilot phase, the Persian version of the Participation Scale (P-scale) and VitiQoL questionnaire were validated with the backward-forward translation method. Among 173 vitiligo patients, the mean participation score was 15.12 (SD=13.88, median=11). Overall, 91 patients (52.6%) had no significant restriction, 38 (22%) suffered from mild, 23 (13.3%) moderate, 20 (11.6%) severe, and 1 (0.6%) suffered from extreme restriction in participation. The association between VitiQol and P-scale was highly significant (r=0.58; p <0.001). This association was also observed with the three subscales of VitiQol, namely participation limitation (r=0.59, p <0.001), behavior (r=0.43, p <0.001), and stigma (r=0.23, P=0.002). We did not find a significant association between P-scale and demographic characteristics, overall VASI, and face, genitals, and exposed areas VASI. Although the majority of our patients perceived no or mild limitation in their social participation, the P-scale score was highly correlated with their quality of life and its components.