Abstract
Background: Patients with chronic urticaria (CU) often report an
impaired quality of life (QoL). Although a positive effect of addressing
spirituality in health care has been proved in several chronic diseases,
its potential role in CU has received no attention. This study evaluated
spirituality and QoL in CU subjects with different control levels.
Methods: In a single-centre observational study, 100 CU subjects were
investigated using Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness
Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp-12) scale, Chronic Urticaria
Quality of life Questionnaire (CU-Q2oL) and Urticaria Control Test
(UCT). Results: Of 100 subjects, 82 were female and 18 were male. It was
observed that subjects with not controlled CU presented FACIT Sp-12
meaning/peace (p = 0.004) significantly lower, and CU-Q2oL (p
<0.0001) significantly higher (worst QoL) than subjects with
controlled CU. There was no difference in the FACIT Sp-12 faith (p =
0.43) between groups. There was moderate direct correlation between
FACIT Sp-12 faith and FACIT Sp-12 meaning/peace (r = 0.483; p
<0.0001; n = 100). There was a significant strong inverse
correlation between the CU-Q2oL and the UCT (r = -0.762; p
<0.0001; n = 100). No correlation was found between the FACIT
Sp-12 faith and CU-Q2oL, neither with UCT. Conclusion: No study has ever
investigated the role of spirituality in managing patients with
urticaria. Our findings support the impact of poorly controlled
urticaria in spiritual well-being and QoL. Therefore, clinicians should
pay more attention to spirituality among CU patients. We suggest that
urticaria guidelines should include specific recommendations on
spirituality assessment.