Background: Information/communication technologies such as mobile phone applications (apps) would enable chronic urticaria (CU) patients to self-evaluate their disease activity and control. Yet, recently Antó et al (2021) reported a global paucity of such apps for patients with CU. In this analysis, we assessed patient interest in using apps to monitor CU disease activity and control using questions from the CURICT study, Methods: The methodology for CURICT has been reported. Briefly, a 23-item questionnaire was completed by 1,841 CU patients from 17 UCAREs across 17 countries. Here, we analyzed patient responses to the CURICT questions on the use of apps for urticaria-related purposes. Results: As previously published, the majority of respondents had chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU; 63%; 18% chronic inducible urticaria [CIndu]; 19% with both), were female (70%) and in urban areas (75%). Over half of patients were very/extremely interested in an app to monitor disease activity (51%) and control (53%), while only ~1/10 were not. Patients with both urticaria types vs those with CSU only (OR, 1.36 [1.03-1.79]) and females vs males (OR[95%CI], 1.47 [1.17-1.85]) were more likely to be very to extremely interested in an app to assess disease control. Conclusions: Overall, patients with CU were highly interested in using an app to assess their disease activity and control. Development of well-designed apps, specific to disease types (CSU, CIndU, CSU+CIndU, etc), validated by experts across platforms would help improve the management and possibly outcomes of CU treatment while providing important patient information to be used in future research.

Background: Patients with chronic urticaria (CU) often report an impaired quality of life (QoL). Although a positive effect of addressing spirituality in health care has been proved in several chronic diseases, its potential role in CU has received no attention. This study evaluated spirituality and QoL in CU subjects with different control levels. Methods: In a single-centre observational study, 100 CU subjects were investigated using Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp-12) scale, Chronic Urticaria Quality of life Questionnaire (CU-Q2oL) and Urticaria Control Test (UCT). Results: Of 100 subjects, 82 were female and 18 were male. It was observed that subjects with not controlled CU presented FACIT Sp-12 meaning/peace (p = 0.004) significantly lower, and CU-Q2oL (p <0.0001) significantly higher (worst QoL) than subjects with controlled CU. There was no difference in the FACIT Sp-12 faith (p = 0.43) between groups. There was moderate direct correlation between FACIT Sp-12 faith and FACIT Sp-12 meaning/peace (r = 0.483; p <0.0001; n = 100). There was a significant strong inverse correlation between the CU-Q2oL and the UCT (r = -0.762; p <0.0001; n = 100). No correlation was found between the FACIT Sp-12 faith and CU-Q2oL, neither with UCT. Conclusion: No study has ever investigated the role of spirituality in managing patients with urticaria. Our findings support the impact of poorly controlled urticaria in spiritual well-being and QoL. Therefore, clinicians should pay more attention to spirituality among CU patients. We suggest that urticaria guidelines should include specific recommendations on spirituality assessment.