Quality of Life and Optimism in Patients with Morphea

Despite extensive knowledge about quality of life of people suffering from dermatological diseases, data on patients with morphea are scarce. The aim of our study was to compare the quality of life of healthy controls and morphea patients, as well as to determine the correlation of this variable with the level of dispositional optimism. The study included 47 patients with morphea and 47 healthy controls, matched for gender and age. Cantril's Ladder and Life Orientation Test-Revised were used to assess the levels of life satisfaction and dispositional optimism, respectively. LoSSI was used for the objective assessment. The anticipated level of life quality and the level of dispositional optimism were statistically significantly lower in morphea patients (p = 0.032 and p = 0.014, respectively) when compared to controls. There were no differences in the assessment of current (p = 0.168) and past (p = 0.318) levels of life quality. Also, we proved that type of morphea did not differentiate the current (p = 0.175), past (p = 0.620) and future (p = 0.356) assessment of the quality of life. In the group of morphea patients there was a statistically significant correlation between the level of dispositional optimism and current (p = 0.002, r = 0.43), as well as anticipated (p < 0.001, r = 0.57) levels of life quality. Current level of life quality of healthy controls and morphea patients is comparable, whereas the latter anticipate their future life situation to be significantly worse than the former. Higher level of life satisfaction correlates with higher level of optimism.