Clinical and Patient-Reported Factors Associated With Impaired Quality of Life in Japanese Patients With Vitiligo: A...

Vitiligo can cause a substantial psychosocial burden. However, the clinical and patient-reported features associated with impaired disease-specific quality of life (QoL) in Japanese patients remain incompletely characterized. We conducted a multicenter, cross-sectional questionnaire study to examine the associations between the Vitiligo-specific Quality-of-Life (VitiQoL) instrument and clinical variables reported by patients and physicians. A total of 255 questionnaires were collected, and 227 patients with complete VitiQoL data were included in the main analysis. The mean VitiQoL total score was 40.6 ± 22.4. Higher VitiQoL scores were associated with female sex, exposed-site involvement, and border hyperpigmentation, with scores increasing progressively with the number of involved exposed regions. VitiQoL scores showed a trend toward an inverse correlation with age. Lesion-associated symptoms were also associated with higher VitiQoL scores, whereas non-lesional skin symptoms were not. Lesion-associated symptoms were associated with physician-rated disease severity. Treatment response assessed by either patients or physicians was not associated with VitiQoL scores. In multivariable analysis, female sex, younger age, a greater number of exposed regions, and border hyperpigmentation were independently associated with higher VitiQoL scores, whereas physician-rated disease severity and lesion-associated symptoms were not. These findings highlight the multifactorial nature of QoL impairment in vitiligo and the importance of incorporating both clinical and patient-reported features into the assessment of QoL beyond repigmentation-based treatment response.