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Malaysian Patients' Knowledge of Psoriasis :
Psoriasis Association Members vs Non-Members
Kim Chye Yee, Siew Eng Choon (1), Guat Eng Khaw (2),
Roshida Baba (3), Suraiya H Hussein (4), and S K Ratti (5)
Tung Shin Hospital, Johore GH (1), Muar GH (2), Malacca GH (3), Hospital Kuala Lumpur (4), Ipoh GH (5)
As psoriasis is a chronic, life-long condition, good patient education is an important part of the total management and may alleviate stress which has a negative impact on psoriasis. Sixty psoriasis patients from 5 states participated in a short questionnaire to test their knowledge about the nature of psoriasis, aggravating factors, and several aspects of treatment some of which were peculiar to the local traditional medicine milieu. Members of the self-help group, Psoriasis Association (PA) had significantly higher scores for correct responses (74.5%) than non-PA- members (60%). Non-members tended to have poor knowledge of factors that aggravate psoriasis eg stress (49% correct response), skin injury (53% correct), certain medications (63%), and certain infections (59%). Both groups, however, had wide gaps in their knowledge about certain treatment modalities. For example, more than 50% of both groups were not aware that anti-metabolites can be used to treat psoriasis and an equal number were not aware of the dangers of traditional herbal treatment for psoriasis. Furthermore, there was no correlation of knowledge scores with duration of disease, number of dermatologists seen or episodes of hospitalisations. The study highlights the common misconceptions that patients have that may be barriers to more effective treatment and prevention of disease exacerbations. Medical professionals need to provide regular continuing medical education to psoriasis patients regardless of whether the sufferer is newly diagnosed or a 'veteran'. Psoriatic patients should be encouraged to form and/or join multi-lingual self-help groups like the PA which can provide ongoing knowledge and support to help improve the quality of life of sufferers.
(A full reprint of this paper is available on request. This study is being submitted to the Malaysian Medical Journal for publication)