Family Dermatology Life Quality Index

The Family Dermatology Life Quality Index (FDLQI) is a questionnaire designed for adult (more than 16 years of age) family members or partners of patients (of any age) with any skin disease.

It is self-explanatory and can be simply handed to the patient’s family member/partner who is asked to fill it in without the need for detailed explanation.

The questionnaire is designed to be used alone or as an additional outcome measure in conjunction with any patient-completed questionnaire, such as the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI).

Who can use it

This questionnaire can be used in a range of settings by clinicians, pharmaceutical companies, with-profit organisations, students or researchers.

Depending on who you are and what you're using the questionnaire for, you may need to apply for licence and pay a fee.

Learn more about who can use this questionnaire and how to administer it.

Time for completion

It is usually completed in two to three minutes.

Recall period

The questions are designed to be completed with a one month recall period.

Download the questionnaire

Different language versions

This zip file contains the questionnaires in different languages, along with the translation certificates. Find out more about our translation and linguistic validation process, and what to do if you'd like to create a new translation.

How to score it

The scoring of each question is:

• Not at all/Not relevant = 0
• A little = 1
• Quite a lot = 2
• Very much = 3
• Not relevant = 0
• Question unanswered = 0

The total score is calculated by summing the score of each question, resulting in a maximum of 30 and a minimum of 0.

The higher the score, the more quality of life is impaired. The questionnaire can also be expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible score of 30.

Interpreting incorrectly completed questionnaires

There is a very high success rate of accurate completion of the questionnaire. However, sometimes subjects do make mistakes. If one question is left unanswered, this is scored 0 and the scores are summed and expressed as usual out of a maximum of 30.

If two or more questions are left unanswered, the questionnaire is not scored. If two or more response options are ticked, the response option with the highest score should be recorded. If there is a response between two tick boxes, the lower of the two score options should be recorded.

Copyright and registration

The Family Dermatology Life Quality Index is copyright worldwide, so you must not change the format, wording or design of the questionnaire.

The copyright statement must always be reprinted at the end of every copy of this questionnaire in whatever language:

© M K A Basra, A Y Finlay, Cardiff University 2005.

By agreement, the University now owns and administers all copyright matters relating to the FDLQI.

The USA Library of Congress Registration

Number: TXu1-296-736
Registration date: 14 April 2006
Authors: Dr M K A Basra and Professor A Y Finlay

Original publication

Basra MKA, Sue-Ho R, Finlay AY. The Family Dermatology Life Quality Index; measuring the secondary impact of skin disease. Br J Dermatol 2007; 156: 528-538. Erratum: British Journal of Dermatology 2007; 156: 791 (Correct FDLQI given here).

Other key publications

• Basra M K A, Finlay A Y. The family impact of skin diseases: the Greater Patient concept. Br J Dermatol 2007; 156: 929-937.
• MKA Basra, O Edmunds, MS Salek, AY Finlay. Measurement of family impact of skin disease: further validation of the Family Dermatology Life Quality Index (FDLQI). J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 2008. 22: 813-821.
• Higaki Y, Tanaka M,Futei Y,Kamo T,Basra MKA, Finlay AY. Japanese Version of the Family Dermatology Life Quality Index: translation and validation. Journal of Dermatology 2017; 44(8): 914-919.

Contact us

If you have any questions, or you have feedback on our web pages, please get in touch.

General queries and feedback

Financial, contractual or student enquiries

Licencing enquiries

If you need to contact Professor Finlay