Table 2.

Effects of pruritus on daily living in patients who were nearly always or always bothered by itchy skin

Among Patients Nearly Always Bothered by Itchy Skin during the Past Week, Frequency of Being Bothered by	0 (Never)	1–3	4–6 (Always)
Being annoyed about your itching	3	15	81
Frustration about your itching	6	17	77
Appearance of your skin from scratching	9	22	69
Feeling depressed about your itching	13	29	58
Feeling embarrassed about your itching	22	33	45
Effect of itching making it hard to work	23	33	45
Effects of itching on desire to be with people	32	33	35
Effects of itching on interactions with others	29	37	34

Data are from the second year of the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study phase 5 (i.e., 2013) in 17 countries. The table shows percentages of responses to questions among patients who said “yes” to “Are you bothered at all by itchy skin?” and selected five or six (“nearly always or always bothered”) on the zero to six scale in response to the question: “During the past week, how often have you been bothered by: your itching?” (n=1023); the number of responders to each question was within 6%.