Patient perspectives on low level light therapy and laser therapies for rosacea-associated persistent facial redness

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: There are no definitive treatments of facial redness for rosacea. All treatments aim to alleviate symptoms. Patients' perspectives of two emerging modalities, Low level light therapy and laser treatments are not well characterized. The purpose is to further understand rosacea patients unmet needs about these modalities, Methods: The publicly accessible, online rosacea forum was accessed at august 2013. Stratified random sampling method has done to identify a 10% sample of total 27,051 posts. The Posts were published in the "Laser and IPL therapy" and "Low level light therapy" forums were qualitatively analyzed. RESULTS: Patients discussed a variety of topics, but most commonly discussed effectiveness (34.2%), treatment education (19.3%), and adverse effects (18%). Relationship with the health care provider (9.9%), cost (8.1%), execution of treatments (8.1%) and convenience of treatments (2.5%) were less commonly discussed, but contributed to patients' decisions about utilizing laser and light therapies. CONCLUSIONS: Online forums are utilized to fulfill patients' desire for educational, empathic and collaborative relationship. Patients' adherence to laser and light therapies will likely increase if costs are reduced, reduction in redness is consistent with their expectations, and if physicians empower them through education on device choices and managing adverse effects.