Assessing quality of ordinal scales depicting skin aging severity

Abstract

In dermatology and in plastic surgery, severity rating scales have been extensively used to describe and quantify the severity of skin disorders [1-4], to assess treatment outcomes, efficacy of cosmetic surgical procedures, and even patients' concern and satisfaction [5-7]. With the development of aesthetic procedures, assessment of severity before and after treatment of skin aging features [8] as well as the identification of significant determinants of skin aging [9, 10] (UV exposure, smoking, genetic polymorphisms) are increasingly reported. Among these scales, ordinal severity scales illustrated by photographs have been widely developed to help plastic surgeons and dermatologists in more objective assessments [1, 9]. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.