Hurley Staging Training for Hidradenitis Suppurativa Patients

The Hurley staging system is a grading system utilized to measure hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) severity. Teaching patients to grade the severity of HS may aid in the accuracy of self-reporting for research and clinical purposes. Thus, this study aimed to determine the utility of a Hurley stage learning module (HSLM) for participants to grade images of HS.

An anonymous survey was distributed online between October 2021 and January 2022. Participants completed a 5-min HSLM and a 9-item Hurley staging quiz with varying Fitzpatrick skin tones and HS severity. Comparative statistics were completed using t tests. p value of <0.05 was considered significant.

Majority of participants were female (95.2%, 263/276) and white (81.5%, 225/276). In terms of the percentage of quiz questions correct: 77.9% of respondents graded the Hurley stage 1 images correctly, 79.3% for Hurley stage 2, and 100% for Hurley stage 3. There was a significant difference in confidence of rating Hurley stage for any image (3.66 ± 1.18 vs. 4.39 ± 0.83; p < 0.0001) and own Hurley stage (3.90 ± 1.19 vs. 4.54 ± 0.81; p < 0.0001) pre- and post-HSLM.

An HSLM provides high level of accuracy and increased participant confidence to grade their own disease and images of HS. An HSLM is an effective, cost-efficient, and valuable tool to facilitate clinical and survey research by allowing patients to report disease severity with increased confidence.