Prevalence and Psychological Impact of Acne on Quality of Life among Undergraduate Medical students of Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Background: Acne Vulgaris is a rife and chronic dermal disorder, which commonly occurs in pubescent. This disease is characterized by the emergence of comedones, papules, pustules, nodules, or cysts which results from obstruction and inflammation of pilosebaceous units.

Objective: To finding out the prevalence and psychological impact of acne on the quality of life in undergraduate medical students of Lahore, Pakistan.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted during the month of October 2020, 291 among undergraduate medical students from eight medical colleges of Lahore, selected through simple random sampling, on both male and female undergraduate medical students. To assist them; they were given a simple grading criterion to self-diagnose their current acne severity and quality of life was evaluated by Cardiff Acne Disability Index. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 22.

Results: A total of 213 (73.2%) prevalence of acne was found among the participants who responded (291). No significant relation between acne severity and gender was found (p=0.151). There was no association between CADI score and gender (p=0.366). However, a significant correlation was found between CADI score and acne severity (p=0.000). In the population studied, 4.7% showed their acne severely impacting their quality of life, 27.7% have moderate, 58.7% have mild and 8.9% have no impact at all.

Conclusion: High Prevalence rate of acne and its significant negative impact on QOL indicates that it is a very common dermatological disorder. Effective interventions can make substantial contributions to derogate the impact of acne severity on QOL.