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- Title
AN OBSERVATIONAL, OPEN, OBSERVER BLINDED VALIDATION STUDY TO ASSESS PATIENT RELIABILITY IN READING AN MED TEST.
- Authors
Gambles, Beverly
- Abstract
Photo-responsive skin disorders are frequently treated with UVB phototherapy. This complex treatment requires patients to enter a phototherapy cabinet and receive incremental doses of UVB on alternate days for approximately 6-8 weeks. Side effects from UVB can include a burning reaction or photosensitivity, which may be due to medication the patient is taking, or the skin condition being treated. Best practice is to perform a minimal erythema dose (MED) test before patients commence treatment. This study compared the patient and phototherapist reading of the MED to see if there was a difference in accuracy. It also evaluated the usefulness of a photographic image of the MED taken by patients at home 24 hours later for assessment by a phototherapist. Method: 84 patients participated in an observational study to determine the accuracy of patient reading of MED and mobile device image of MED at home compared to the reading of an MED by a phototherapist. The study was approved locally by the Wales Research Ethics Committee. Results: For direct skin observation, the phototherapist and patient agreed on 48/69 (69.6%) observations and agreed within one MED category on 66/69 (95.6%) of occasions. When assessing mobile phone images, complete agreement was obtained for 59/73 (80.1%) and agreement within one MED for 72/73 (98.6%) observations. Conclusions: This study showed that patients - if appropriately chosen and with appropriate education and support - can usually be relied upon to take an accurate reading of their MED and also take a digital image of their MED to act as a safety net to be read by the phototherapist. A literature search revealed no studies assessing ability or accuracy of patients reading their MED tests at home.
- Subjects
RESEARCH methodology; SCIENTIFIC observation; PHOTOSENSITIVITY disorders; PHOTOTHERAPY; RELIABILITY (Personality trait); RESEARCH evaluation; STATISTICS; ULTRAVIOLET radiation; INTER-observer reliability; DESCRIPTIVE statistics
- Publication
Dermatological Nursing, 2020, Vol 19, Issue 3, p44
- ISSN
1477-3368
- Publication type
Article