A STUDY ON IMPACT OF ACNE VULGARIS ON QUALITY OF LIFE

Background: Acne vulgaris is a chronic inflammatory disease of pilosebaceousunits.Complications of acne like scarring and psychosocial distress persists long after active lesions have disappeared ⁽²⁾. Present study aims to study the impact of acne vulgaris on quality of life in patients with acne.

Materials and methods: A hospital based prospective study was done on patients with acne vulgaris. Patients with acne vulgaris of age group 16-35 years were included in the study. Patients with chronic co-morbidities which can affect the quality of life and patients not willing to give consent were excluded from the study. Acne vulgaris was graded using a simple grading system and QoL was assessed using DLQI questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS software version 17.

Results: 100 patients were included in the study. Mean age was 24.02 and most affected age group was 21-25 years of age. Majority were females(64%). Grade 2 acne was the commonest type seen. Mean DLQI was 8.09 and majority of patients had moderate effect on QoL. Pearsons correlation obtained on comparing acne grading with DLQI was 0.269 suggesting a significant weak positive correlation.

Conclusion: The present study observed moderate impact on QoL in most of the patients. Since acne definitely has a significant impact on QoL,present study highlights the need for measurement of QoL in every patient with acne through questionnaire so that patients with impaired QoL can be identified and counselled accordingly.