Chronic leg ulcers have a profound impact on patients' physical, functional, and psychological status, which may result in several life changes and a significant decline in quality of life (QoL). We aimed to study what changed in patients' lives after developing a chronic leg ulcer, including QoL, patients' comprehension of the disease and related feelings. A cross-sectional study, using an anonymous questionnaire and the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) was performed. Chronic leg ulcers were life changing events, causing abandonment of work in almost 80% of the patients and important limitations in daily activities and autonomy. Familial relationships changed in more than half of the patients. Almost 15% hid or would like to hide their disease from others, especially patients with a shorter duration of disease. QoL was very or extremely affected in 18.2% of the participants completing the DLQI.
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Cunha et al. (2017) studied this question.
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