Quality of life,self-esteem and psychosocial factors in adolescents with acne vulgaris

Background: dermatological diseases,among which acne vulgaris,have psychological impact on the affected generating feelings of guilt,shame and social isolation. objectives: to compare quality of life,self-esteem and other psychosocial variables amongst adolescents with and without acne vulgaris,and between levels of severity. methods: cross-sectional observational study in a sample of 355 high school students from the city of joão pessoa. data collection was performed with questionnaires and clinical-dermatological evaluation. the primary variables were the incidence of av; quality of life,set by the children’s dermatology quality of life index and dermatology quality of life index; and self-esteem,measured by the rosenberg self-esteem scale. for calculation of statistical tests,we used the spss 20.0 software,considering p=0.05. results: the sample,with an average age of 16,showed 89.3% prevalence of acne vulgaris. the most prevalent psychosocial issue was “afraid that acne will never cease”,present in 58% of affected youth. the median score of quality of life in children’s dermatology index was different amongst students with and without acne vulgaris (p=0.003),as well as the quality of life in dermatology (p=0.038) scores,so that students with acne vulgaris have worse qol. there was a correlation between the severity of acne vulgaris and worse quality of life. self-esteem was not significantly associated with the occurrence or severity of acne vulgaris. conclusions: acne vulgaris assumes significance in view of its high prevalence and the effect on quality of life of adolescents,more severe at the more pronounced stages of disease (p<0.001). the psychosocial impact of acne vulgaris should be valued in the management of patients with this condition. © 2015 by anais brasileiros de dermatologia.