Abstract
Background Atopic Dermatitis (AD) is a chronic skin condition characterized by pruritis which presents with xerosis, lichenification, and the eruption of eczematous lesions. Aims To measure the quality of life in the paediatric population with atopic dermatitis at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Methods The assessment tool utilized was the Infants' Dermatitis Quality of Life Index (IDQOL) questionnaire which is validated and available in Arabic. The sample size is 80 participants. Demographics, history of atopy, current treatment, and the percentage of body involved were described as frequencies. Chi-square test was performed to determine if there was a significant difference between gender, age group and the presence of other atopic disease in comparison to percentages of body involved. The analysis of the questionnaire's items was done by One-way ANOVA to determine where significant impact on quality of life was present. Results There was a significant difference in overall IDQOL score between patient who had asthma with AD and those who did not (p=0.016). Significantly, the higher the percentage of body area affected by AD, the higher IDQOL score (p<0.0001). No significant difference was identified for the chi-square test. Among questionnaire's items sleep disturbance was affected the most among patients in relation to increase in distribution of disease along the body (p<0.0001). Conclusion The study concluded that the IDQoL among paediatric population with Atopic Dermatitis was significantly impaired, and it showed that the disease severity was proportionally related to the impairment of patients' quality of life. Therefore, we highly recommend further studies in the same field to be able to generalize the results in the Saudi paediatric population.