Abstract

Background: Acne vulgaris, a multifactorial disease, is one of the most common dermatological conditions that is encountered in clinical practice and affecting approximately 80% adolescents and young adults at some stage.

Objective: To study the quality of life in adolescents with acne and its relation with severity.

Materials and Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out in the Dermatology Outpatient Department of a tertiary care hospital from January 2014 to December 2014. All the patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were chosen from the Dermatology Out-Patient Department during the specified period of time. Cardiff acne disability index (CADI) and separate Child dermatology life quality index (CDLQI) and adult Dermatology life quality index (DLQI) were assessed depending on the age of the patient. Data were entered and analyzed using Epi Info software (version 3.4.3). Categorical data were analyzed using the Pearson’s χ2-test and significant P-value was fixed at P < 0.05.

Result: With the DLQI, only a few questions relating to the symptoms and the embarrassment or self-consciousness caused by the disease were positively answered by the patients. Of all, 12% patients had problems with their partners or close friends or relatives due to acne. However, acne did not interfere with the activities of their daily life such as school work, household work, leisure activities, sports, or the clothes they wore. DLQI also had only a small and moderate effect on 67% and 20% patients, respectively. Very much effect was noted in 5% and there was no effect in 8% cases. On correlating the severity of acne with the DLQI, it was interestingly found that there was no correlation with the severity. Patients with moderate acne seemed to have a very much effect whereas the patients with severe acne had a moderate effect. These results were statistically significant (P = 0.0001).

Conclusion: Our study implies that the quality of life impairment must not be judged based on the acne severity. Quality of life does not always correlate with acne severity and the disability caused by it must be taken into account when individualizing treatment. A questionnaire more relevant to our setting could be postulated taking into account the marital status, dietary inhibitions, etc. based on the Indian sociocultural practices pertaining to various age groups.

Key words: Acne, quality of life, adolescents