To Örebro University

Background: Women with hirsutism report more anxiety, depression and lower quality of life. However, their social situation with a family and employment does not differ from other women. Social support is a factor that might increase quality of life in chronic diseases. Little is known about social support and skin diseases.

Objectives: The aim was to evaluate the relation between health-related quality of life and social support among women with hirsutism.

Methods: A questionnaire including socio-demographic questions, Short Form 36 (SF-36), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and a self-estimation of hairiness using the Ferriman-Gallway scale (F-G scale) was filled out by 127. MSPSS has three sub-scales (family, friends, significant others) and a total score, that was used for calculation.

Results: Compared to a Swedish population based reference group women with hirsutism reported lower quality of life in all dimensions of SF-36 (p<0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed a significant correlation between the MSPSS and SF-36 in the initial and adjusted model.

Conclusions: There is a significant positive relation between quality of life and social support, demonstrating its importance for the ability to adapt to problems associated with hirsutism. It can be postulated that social support is important for the quality of life in chronic skin diseases wich merits further investigations.