Determining the Severity of Atopic Dermatitis in Children Presenting in General Practice: An Easy and Fast Method

Assessment of the severity of atopic dermatitis (AD) is necessary to evaluate the disease process. This study evaluates and validates the TIS in children with AD presenting in general practice. Independent investigators determined the severity of AD using the TIS and the objective SCORAD. The interobserver agreement for the TIS and SCORAD was calculated, as was the correlation between TIS and SCORAD. The mean time to assess the TIS was less than one minute. A moderate-to-good agreement between the observers was found for the TIS (κ = 0.604 or 0.464), or SCORAD (κ = 0.695 or 0.700). There was an excellent correlation between TIS and SCORAD (rs = 0.755–0.839). In conclusion, the TIS is an easy and fast method to score AD. Because of the moderate to good interobserver agreement and the high correlation with the SCORAD, we recommend the TIS to determine the severity of AD in general practice

doi:10.1155/2009/357046 Research Article Determining the Severity of Atopic Dermatitis in Children Presenting in General Practice: An Easy and Fast Method

Assessment of the severity of atopic dermatitis (AD) is necessary to evaluate the disease process. This study evaluates and validates the TIS in children with AD presenting in general practice. Independent investigators determined the severity of AD using the TIS and the objective SCORAD. The interobserver agreement for the TIS and SCORAD was calculated, as was the correlation between TIS and SCORAD. The mean time to assess the TIS was less than one minute. A moderate-to-good agreement between the observers was found for the TIS (κ = 0.604 or 0.464), or SCORAD (κ = 0.695 or 0.700). There was an excellent correlation betweenTISandSCORAD(rs = 0.755–0.839). In conclusion, the TIS is an easy and fast method to score AD. Because of the moderate to good interobserver agreement and the high correlation with the SCORAD, we recommend the TIS to determine the severity of AD in general practice. Copyright © 2009 Marjolein G. Willemsen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1