Sensitive skin syndrome (SSS) is a common skin condition, defined by the occurrence of unpleasant sensory perceptions, such as stinging, burning, tingling, or itching in response to physical, thermal, chemical, hormonal, psychological, or other stimuli that normally do not provoke such sensations. As its symptoms are mainly subjective, sensitive skin may have a normal appearance or be accompanied by erythema.
There is no international consensus to date on how to assess and diagnose SSS, as subjective methods are specific but show low reproducibility.
To overcome this issue, several questionnaires have been developed in recent years. These patient-reported scales aim to assess sensitive skin and how it affects patients’ quality of life. Among those tools, only a handful have been validated. One of these validated questionnaires is the Burden of Sensitive Skin (BoSS), developed in 2018 following a rigorously validated methodology.
The BoSS questionnaire allows patients to self-assess the impact of their SSS on their daily life, which is associated with the severity of the disease. In consequence, studies conducted with it showed that the BoSS questionnaire may also be considered as a good diagnostic tool for SSS.
The present document explains the development of the BoSS questionnaire, as well as a summary of its use during various interesting research conducted internationally.
Additional investigations are needed in larger and more diverse populations to improve our understanding of SSS. The BoSS questionnaire is destined to evolve and adapt accordingly.
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Prof. Laurent Misery, MD, PHD
