Treatment Seeking in Young Women with Acne

Abstract

Background: It is important that acne sufferers seek medical treatment to alleviate physical and possible psychological effects as early as possible. Treatment seeking behaviour amongst acne sufferers, however, is poorly understood. Objectives: To examine which type of personality variables can predict those who will seek medical treatment. To also examine what type of help seeking is associated with better acne related quality of life. Methods: Participants were 165 female students from an Australian University (82.5% response rate) aged between 17 and 28 years. All participants had their acne objectively rated as well as provided their own subjective rating. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), Acne Related Quality of Life Questionnaire (Acne QoL), The Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and The Dysmorphic Concerns Questionnaire (DCQ) were used to assess participants’ general psychopathology, acne related quality of life, type and level of perfectionism and dysmorphic concerns, respectively. Results: Binomial logistic regression analysis revealed that a greater level of objective rated acne severity was associated with seeking treatment from non-medical help (p < 0.05). ANOVAs revealed (p < 0.01) that those participants seeking treatment from nonmedical professionals had less psychopathology, greater acne severity and a high level of socially prescribed perfectionism and dysmorphic concerns. Furthermore, ANOVA revealed that those participants who were currently seeking help from a medical professional had a greater acne quality of life (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Those young women experiencing more severe acne severity seek help from non-physicians. Less distress due to acne is associated with seeking medical help.

Correlation and agreement of self‐assessed and objective skin disease severity in a cross‐sectional study of patients with acne, psoriasis, and atopic eczema

“…Therefore, very good correlation and agreement of subjective and objective measures might be expected. Correlation of 0.46 in our study can be compared with correlation in previous studies, [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] which has ranged from good (0.77) 14,17 to none. 11 Of more importance is the relatively poor agreement (weighted kappa of 0.35) between self-assessed and objective clinician-assessed severity.…”

“…In previous studies, 10–20 the correlation of clinician‐assessed and patient‐assessed disease severity has ranged from very good (correlation coefficient 0.77 14,17 ) to very poor 11 but has generally been surprisingly modest. The most appropriate means of examining the relationship of subjects’ assessments and objective measures, however, is not correlation (as has been consistently utilized in previous studies) but is agreement 21 .…”

The association between acne care provision and quality of life: A cross‐sectional survey

“…Studies have also indicated that the negative psychological impact of having acne is comparable to that of chronic medical conditions, including asthma, epilepsy, diabetes mellitus, back pain, and arthritis 4,10 . Despite the negative impact of acne on QOL, not all individuals with acne experience the same level of QOL impairment, indicating that other factors might be at work 11‐14 …”

Skin Diseases in Family Medicine: Prevalence and Health Care Use

“…[9][10][11] Additionally, the use of health care by patients with skin diseases has rarely been investigated. 1,2,12 The goal of this study was to examine the prevalence of skin diseases, the use of health care by patients with skin diseases, and the relationship between this use of health care and disease-related variables (eg, disease severity and quality of life). We expected more patients with more severe skin diseases and a lower skin-related quality of life to seek more treatment.…”