Correlation between Objective SCORAD and Three-Item Severity Score used by physicians and Objective PO-SCORAD used by parents/patients in children with atopic dermatitis

Background: A self-assessment rating scale (SAS) is a good tool to assess the fluctuating disease severity and quality of life (QoL) in children with atopic dermatitis (AD). The European Task Force on Atopic Dermatitis created an SAS based on the Scoring Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index, called the Patient-Oriented SCORAD (PO-SCORAD).

Objective: The aim of our study was to measure the correlation between alternative systems such as the OBJECTIVE SCORAD, the Three-Item Severity (TIS) score and the OBJECTIVE PO-SCORAD. We also investigated the correlations between the objective severity assessments and QoL.

Methods: In a specialized outpatient clinic, an observational prospective study was performed with children ≤16 years with AD.

Results: Seventy-five children were included. A good and significant correlation was shown between OBJECTIVE SCORAD and OBJECTIVE PO-SCORAD: Spearman's ρ correlation (rs) = 0.63 (p < 0.001). The correlation with QoL was moderate, but still significant (rs = 0.41-0.61, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The OBJECTIVE PO-SCORAD can be used for the evaluation of fluctuating AD and correlates significantly with the OBJECTIVE SCORAD and the less time-consuming TIS score.