SynthesisJournal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV2025
The Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) used as the benchmark in validation of 101 quality-of-life instruments: A systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Clinical Severity and Outcome Measures in Seborrheic Dermatitis: A Systematic Review.Dermatology and therapy · 2026Pooled it
- Evaluating patient-reported outcomes in randomized controlled trials of targeted therapy and/or immunotherapy for liver cancer: a scoping review.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Pooled it
- The Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) used as the benchmark in validation of 101 quality-of-life instruments: A systematic review.Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence and determinants of anxiety and depression in adult patients with atopic dermatitis in Tanzania.Skin health and disease · 2026Article
- Internalized stigma, not disability, drives quality-of-life loss in leprosy: A structural analysis.Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV · 2026Article
- Development and psychometric evaluation of a new itch assessment questionnaire for use in multi-ethnic Asian population.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Severity bands for atopic dermatitis measures: Analysis from adult dupilumab randomized clinical trials.Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV · 2026Article
- Comparing the measurement properties, informativity and responsiveness of the DLQI, DLQI-Relevant (DLQI-R), and Skindex-29 in patients with chronic skin disease: a prospective cohort study.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Management of Facial Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Induced Vitiligo with Topical Ruxolitinib: Quantitative Assessment Using a Semi-Automatic Tool.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Article
- HS-20137 for Chinese Moderate-to-Severe Psoriasis: A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Phase 2 Study.Dermatology and therapy · 2026Article
- Confirmation of unidimensionality of the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) using a multinational 3,408 patient dataset.Journal of patient-reported outcomes · 2026Article
- A Nomogram Predicting Decreased Quality of Life in Patients with Keloids.Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dermatology · 2026Article
- Impact of Plastic Surgery of Nail Folds Combined with Conservative Nail Plate Reconstruction on the Quality of Life in Patients with Ingrown Toenails: A DLQI-Based Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Advantages of Mohs Surgery in the Treatment of NMSC in the Head and Neck District.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Comparison of Dermatology Life Quality Index Scores in Adults and Adolescents with Alopecia Areata.Dermatology and therapy · 2025Article
- Assessment of dermatological life quality in patients with cutaneous diseases at Universitas Academic Hospital.Journal of the colleges of medicine of South Africa · 2025Article
- Aesthetic satisfaction of patients following plastic surgery of nail folds combined with conservative nail plate reconstruction for ingrown toenails.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe validation of psychometric measures requires use of other established and standardized validated measures. The Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) is the most widely used tool to measure the burden of skin diseases and assess effectiveness of interventions based on patients' perspective.
objectivesThe objective of this study was to systematically analyse peer-reviewed publications describing use of the DLQI in validation of other patient-reported outcome (PRO) and quality-of-life (QoL) measures.
methodsSeven databases were searched for papers published between January 1994 and December 2022 for articles containing data using DLQI in the validation of other PRO/QoL measures. The methodology followed PRISMA guidelines. The protocol was prospectively registered on PROSPERO.
resultsOf 1717 screened publications, 122 articles including 30,727 patients from 34 different countries with 41 diseases met the inclusion criteria. The DLQI was used in validation of 101 measures: 80 dermatology-specific QoL measures, mostly disease-specific, and 21 generic measures. Of these studies, 47 were cross-cultural adaptations, 116 single arm, 100 were cross-sectional, 18 longitudinal and six randomized placebo controlled. DLQI was used for 14 known group, and correlation for 10 construct, 101 convergent, 10 concurrent, 10 divergent/discriminant and three criterion validity tests using Mann-Whitney (2), Spearman's (80), Pearson's correlation (26) and Student's t-test (1). The DLQI was used in responsiveness analysis in 13 studies.
conclusionsThis review identified widespread use of the DLQI in validation of other dermatology PRO/QoL measures and confirmed the central role that the DLQI plays as a benchmark in instrument development and validation across dermatology and beyond. The use of the DLQI by so many developers of other instruments has provided a common standard for comparability.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.