Reliability of measurement instruments for vitiligo extent and their feasibility: A meta‐analysis

Dear Editor, Different instruments have been validated to determine the extent of vitiligo.Inter-and intrarater reliability is crucial for selecting the best clinician-and patient-reported outcome measures for clinical trials.We conducted a meta-analysis evaluating the reliability of disease extent measurement instruments for vitiligo.The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were pooled and compared using meta-analysis and meta-regression.Seven instruments were identified: Vitiligo Area Scoring Index (VASI), Self-Assessment (SA)VASI, Facial (F)-VASI, VASI 10%, Vitiligo Extent Score (VES), VESplus and SA-VES.High interrater and intrarater reliability was found for VASI (ICC = 0.892), VES (ICC = 0.961) and VESplus (ICC = 0.944) (Figure 1).Meta-regression resulted in significantly higher reliability of VES (ICC = 0.961) over VASI (ICC = 0.892) for static measurements (p < 0.001;