Overview of health status quality-of-life measures.

The concept of quality of life (QOL) is becoming increasingly important in medicine, particularly in dermatology where many cutaneous diseases have the potential to affect the quality rather than the length of life. There is increasing interest in devising methodology to accurately measure the impact of disease on QOL for use in clinical practice, research studies, and economic analyses. The question of which dermatologic QOL instruments to choose inevitably arises. The aim of this article is to familiarize readers with health status measures and to review their use in dermatology.