Acne among Medical Students in Baghdad, Pattern and Associated Factors

Abstract

Background: Acne is very common in teenagers and younger adult age groups characterized by chronic inflammation of pilosebaceous glands. It is the most common skin disease, affecting nearly 80 percent of persons at some time between the ages of 11 and 30 years. The majority of medical students are adolescents who are the most sufferers of acne and the ones suffering from emotional and social stress. Method: A cross-sectional study of analytic element was conducted on a convenient sample of medical students from six medical colleges in Baghdad. Questionnaires covering the demography, clinical acne pattern, treatment modality and psychological relation were designed and distributed online to the students and the results were analyzed by SPSS and presented by suitable charts and tables, association was assessed by chi square test. Result: A cross-sectional study included 768 students of medical colleges in Baghdad, age range 17-27 years with mean ± SD (20.4 ± 1.8) The study shows that the most common types of acne are whiteheads (38.67%) & papule (36.71%) but cysts, papule, and pustules are associated with the highest rate of complications. It’s mostly distributed on the face (90.75%). On the subject of acne severity, most cases are almost clear (42%) followed by mild and moderate (34%, 20%). Regarding the effect of skin type on the appearance of acne, this study revealed that normal/ combined skin type has the highest association of acne appearance (50%) but the oily skin has the highest severity (5.2%) and the highest rate of complications (72.6%) if compared with other types of skin. It shows that females have more complications associated with acne than males. Conclusion: Females are at higher percentage to get acne, especially those who have oily skin. Whiteheads are the most common types, the common sites on face and chest, about quarter of the students have moderate-severe acne, certain types of food (as dairy and high carb), stress, were among factors having significant association with acne complications (74%,47% respectively), face washing as treatment showed improvement of acne.