A Study of Quality of Life in Patients with Facial Melanoses

Facial melanoses decreases the quality of life (QoL). Melasma is the commonest cause but there are various other etiologies for facial pigmentation.

To study the clinical profile of patients with facial melanoses and the psychological burden in these patients.

All patients having patchy or diffuse facial pigmentation attending the OPD in a tertiary care hospital for a period of 1 year were included in this hospital based cross-sectional study.

The type, extent, and distribution of the pigmentation was noted and tabulated in all patients. All patients were explained about Skindex-16 questionnaire and asked to complete it.

Student t-test (two tailed, independent) was used to find the significance of study parameters on continuous scale between two groups. Chi-square/Fisher Exact test was used to find the significance of study parameters on categorical scale between two or more groups. Correlation was performed using Spearman corrélation.

The total number of cases studied was 238 of which 186 (78.2%) were females and 52 (21.8%) were males. The most common diagnosis was melasma seen in 73% of cases. Other conditions noted were phototanning (5.8%), post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (5.8%), Lichen planus pigmentosus (4.2%), freckles (3.7%), and Nevus of Ota (1.6%). Skindex-16 score against different grades of pigmentation showed that the mean Skindex-16 score was higher in severe cases but there was no statistically significant difference between the groups.

The extent and severity of facial pigmentation and the decrease in the QoL are not proportional.