Impact of acne on the daily life of adult patients: building a self-administered patient questionnaire

Abstract

Background: Acne is a long-lasting disease in adolescents and adults impacting the patient’s daily life. Currently, there is no specific questionnaire that assesses its impact in adult patients. Aim: To build a self-administered questionnaire assessing the impact of acne on the daily life in adult patients. Method: A multidisciplinary working group was created, including 3 experts in healthcare questionnaires and dermatologists specialized in acne. A questionnaire using a standardized methodology for designing self-administered patient questionnaires according to conceptual, development and validation phases was developed. A cultural and linguistic validation into US English was conducted, based on the original French version. Results: A 14-item questionnaire demonstrating consistency, reproducibility and high reliability was build. The questionnaire significantly correlated with the SF-12 mental and SF-12 physical scores and CADI, indicating good external validity. Conclusion: The present acne burden questionnaire AI-ADL allows the practioner to assess quickly and easily the burden of acne in patients during his daily clinical practice. Moreover, its short format allows patients to express easily and quickly their feelings and to initiate a conversation between the practioner and his patient. Thus, AI-ADL may help to better understand the multidimensional nature of acne, as well as the individual impact on the acne patient’s daily life and moreover, it may play a key role in the decision-making process of treatment initiation and involvement of the patient in the management of his acne.