Quality of Life of Patients with Urticaria in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of urticaria is increasing. Approximately 20% of individuals have suffered from an acute episode of urticaria at least at some point in their lives. The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical and therapeutic socio-demographic profile and quality of live of patients followed for urticaria in the dermatology-venereology department of the Yalgado Ouédraogo University Hospital in Ouagadougou. Methodology: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study over a 5-year period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019. The data were collected retrospectively by analysing the files and prospectively by evaluating the quality of life with DLQI. All the records of patients treated for urticaria at the Dermatology-Venerology Department of the Yalgado Ouédraogo University Hospital during the period were included. Results: Urticarial frequency is 1.91%. There were 36 men (25.71%) and 104 women (74.28%), i.e. a sex ratio of 0.34. The median age was 31 years with extremes of 4 to 70 years. The 30 - 45 age group accounted for 51.42%, followed by the 16 - 29 age group (31.42%), then the 46 - 65 age group (9.28%), the 4 - 15 age group (5.71%) and the over 66 age group (2.14%). In terms of occupation, pupils/students accounted for 37.1%, housewives for 18.6% and workers for 44.3%. As for the residence of the patients, 88.57% lived in Ouagadougou Personal history of atopy, it concerned 19.26% of patients, with precisely 9.28% having asthma history, 7.14% having rhino-sinusitis history, 1.42% of atopic dermatitis and allergic conjunctivitis respectively. For clinical aspects, 97.14% of the patients had superficial urticaria, and 2.86% had facial angioedema. There were 35% (49) patients with acute urticaria and 65% (91) with chronic urticaria. Chronic urticaria was spontaneous in 55% (50) and physically inducible in 10% (9) (sweating, pressure or friction). 97.14% of patients received antihistamines associated with systemic corticoids in 2.86%. For Quality of life, the mean DLQI score was 7.51, indicating a moderate effect of urticaria on patients’ quality of life. The quality of life of women was more affected than that of men, especially in the professional and social spheres. Conclusion: In hospital frequency of urticaria is low in Ouagadougou, a predominance of chronic spontaneous urticaria whose management involves the use of second generation antihistamines at a dosage and duration that do not meet international recommendations. The patients’ quality of life was moderately impaired.