FROM THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WOMEN’S DERMATOLOGY
The severity of acne has a substantial negative impact on patients’ self-esteem in different age groups and cultures, with the greatest impact on women and in those with more severe acne, according to the authors of a review of studies that evaluated self-esteem in patients with acne.
Dermatologists Stephanie M. Gallitano, MD , of Columbia University, and Diane S. Berson, MD , of Cornell University, both in New York City, conducted a literature search of studies using the terms “acne vulgaris” and “self-esteem.” They identified 13 studies in 11 countries, including India, Singapore, Brazil, Greece, the United Kingdom, Egypt, South Korea, and Australia.
In the review, published in the International Journal of Women’s Dermatology , they wrote that most of the study authors determined that women with acne were more likely to have a greater degree of feelings that involved self-consciousness, lower self-esteem, and self-worth. In four studies, though, “men and women were equally affected by their disease,” and in one study in Egypt, self-esteem was significantly lower in males with acne than in women with acne, they wrote.
In all the studies, “self-esteem became lower as severity of acne increased,” they observed. There was evidence that subjective perceptions of acne severity affected self-esteem, with a few studies associating subjective evaluations of acne severity, but not objective evaluations, with lower self-esteem. They included a study of 550 students in Turkey, which found “a significant relationship between subjective acne severity and self-esteem but no relationship between objective acne severity and self-esteem.”
Most – between 70% and 80% – of patients used self-prescribed treatments, and 5% to almost 30% had seen a dermatologist. But patients with more severe acne were more likely to have seen a dermatologist, with 61% of those with moderate to severe acne having seen a dermatologist in a Greek study, for example. In addition, in an adult study and in an adolescent study, patients who felt that they had benefited from treatment also had improved self-esteem, improved quality of life, and less anxiety compared with those who did not feel they had benefited from treatment, the authors wrote.
Their review shows that acne “has a substantial negative impact on patients’ self-esteem” and that more severe acne and acne in women “tend to have the greatest impact across cultures,” they concluded.
Read the full study in the International Journal of Women’s Dermatology.
SOURCE: Gallitano S.M, et al. Int J Womens Dermatol 2017 Oct. doi: 10.1016/j.ijwd.2017.10.004
