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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2017 | Volume
: 8
| Issue : 1 | Page : 61-62 |
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Nurses and psoriasis disease: A holistic perspective
M Vinsha1, Felicia Chitra2, Radha Saini3
1 District Urban Health Consultant, National Urban Health Mission, District Health Society, MAHE, Puducherry, India
2 Department of Medical Surgical, Nursing, Mother Theresa Post Graduate and Research Institute of Health Sciences (Govt. of Puducherry), Puducherry, India
3 Fellow UICC Geneva and Independant Researcher, Patiala, Punjab, India
| Date of Web Publication | 2-Feb-2017 |
Correspondence Address:
Radha Saini
Fellow UICC Geneva and Independant Researcher, Dist. Patiala, Punjab
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0975-9727.199374
How to cite this article:
Vinsha M, Chitra F, Saini R. Nurses and psoriasis disease: A holistic perspective. Muller J Med Sci Res 2017;8:61-2 |
Dear Editor,
Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease which has a physical impact on skin, but it also affects people's feelings and behavior. It affects the way a person sees himself/herself and the way a person is seen by others. Psoriasis is linked to social stigmatization, pain, discomfort, physical disability, and psychological stress.[1] In India, the prevalence of psoriasis varies from 0.44% to 2.8%, it is twice more common in males compared to females, and most of the patients are in their third or fourth decade at the time of presentation.[2] Very few Indian studies examined this aspect of Indian patients of psoriasis.[3]
Nurses constitute a very integral and resourceful part in providing holistic care to the patients, and this care should be rendered after utmost assessment of not only the patient's disease and disease process but also the psychological, social, and emotional domains of the patient. The nurse is also perceived as an understandable and accessible person, which may increase satisfaction with care, which in turn improves adherence.[4]
A standardized Psoriasis Disability Index Scale (PDI)[5] was used to assess the quality of life of psoriasis patients. These patients were part of the psoriasis camp organized by a local government hospital of Puducherry on the occasion of “World Psoriasis Day” which falls on October 29. On October 29, 2015, a total of 74 patients came for attending the psoriasis camp, and after a routine body checkup and health education program, we motivated all of them to be the part of our study. Only sixty patients consented to be the part of this study.
Descriptive statistics was calculated to evaluate the quality of life of psoriasis patients. Group comparisons were made using Chi-square test. Results indicated that majority, i.e., 43.3% of the patients had experienced moderate level of disability, 38.35% had experienced severe level of disability, and only 18.3% had mild disability. Analysis of different subsets of PDI revealed that psoriasis affected daily activities of 96.67% patients, leisure of 96.67%, work of 95%, treatment of 43.33%, and personal relations of 38.33% patients. This clearly shows that psoriasis patients suffered a low quality of life. The results also indicated that there was a significant association of age, occupation, type of family, family history of psoriasis, duration of sleep, onset of psoriasis, types of psoriasis, and duration of psoriasis on the quality of life of psoriasis patients at P < 0.05 level. There was no statistically significant association between gender and quality of life at P > 0.05 level.
Nurses need to assess and further understand the emotional, psychosocial, and sociocultural domains of the psoriasis patients and help the patients dispel the misconceptions related to their self-esteem and body image. Proper guidance and counseling sessions should be undertaken for all the patients, especially the adolescents and the young adults as they are very sensitive for their body image. Then only, we can say that the role of nurse is changing from a primary caregiver to a “change agent.”
Financial Support and Sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of Interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Manjula VD, Sreekiran S, Saril PS, Sreekanth MP. A study of psoriasis and quality of life in a tertiary care teaching hospital of Kottayam, Kerala. Indian J Dermatol 2011;56:403-6.  [ PUBMED]  |
| 2. | Dogra S, Yadav S. Psoriasis in India: Prevalence and pattern. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2010;76:595-601. [ PUBMED] |
| 3. | Rakhesh SV, D'Souza M, Sahai A. Quality of life in psoriasis: A study from South India. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2008;74:600-6. [ PUBMED] |
| 4. | Renzi C, Picardi A, Abeni D, Agostini E, Baliva G, Pasquini P, et al. Association of dissatisfaction with care and psychiatric morbidity with poor treatment compliance. Arch Dermatol 2002;138:337-42. |
| 5. | Finlay AY, Khan GK, Luscombe DK, Salek MS. Validation of sickness impact profile and psoriasis disability index in psoriasis. Br J Dermatol 1990;123:751-6. |
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