Psychological morbidity and self-esteem in patients of acne Vulgaris: Data from a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To assess psychological morbidity and level of self-esteem in patients of acne vulgaris. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan from June 2017 to December 2017.  Study was approved by ethical board of Shifa hospital. One hundred and fifty-six acne vulgaris patients of both genders, aging ≥16 years were selected by convenient sampling technique. Informed consent was taken from all participants. After collecting demographic details, each patient was assessed for psychological morbidity using General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and self-esteem was measured by Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSES). Data collected was analyzed by using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: Out of 156 enrolled patients, 108 (69.2%) were females and 48 (30.8%) were males. Mean age of was 22.03±5.96 years. Mean duration of acne was 25.69±21.74 months. The most commonly affected area of the body with acne was face (n=108/156, 69.2%) followed by chest (n=24/156, 15.4%), shoulders (n=13/156, 8.3%) and back (n=11/156, 7.1%). A dominant proportion of the sample had positive family history of acne (82/156, 52.6%), were unmarried (118/156, 75.6%) and had a good educational background [graduates=53/156 (34.0%)]. A total of 27 (17.3%) patients had low esteem reported as per RSES and 146 (93.6%) were labelled as having psychological morbidity as per GHQ-12 scale. Fisher’s exact test showed no statistical significance between low esteem and psychological morbidity (p=0.2126). CONCLUSION: The patients suffering from acne can suffer from low self-esteem. However, the proportion of patients having psychological morbidity because of acne is much higher and independent of self-esteem.