Why medical students don’t seek treatment for acne vulgaris, patient’s perspective

Acne Vulgaris

Abstract

Objective Medical students have a high prevalence of developing acne owing to the increased level of stress they are exposed to, yet the threshold for treatment is still very high. The objective of the current study was to find out the perspective of the medical students suffering from acne vulgaris, as to why they do not seek treatment for their acne.   Methods A study on acne was conducted in the Dermatology Department of Punjab Rangers Teaching Hospital. Total number of 70 medical students of Rahbar Medical and Dental college from first year to final year were enrolled in the study. A questionnaire was formulated and circulated among the students addressing the severity, duration of disease and the reasons for not taking any treatment. The data was recorded and the results were interpreted to determine those reasons which the patients mentioned themselves, as to why their acne was not being treated.   Results Among total 70 patients, there were 45 females and 25 males between 18 -27 years of age. The maximum number of participants having acne were final year students. According to severity, 37 (52.9%) participants had mild acne, 30 (42.9%) had moderate and only 3 (4.3%) had severe acne. The duration of the acne was between 2 months to 5 years.  Variable responses were noted as: 36 (51.4%) patients reported that acne is self-healing; 18 (25.7%) reported that they have occasional eruption; 10 (14.3%) did not feel like taking any treatment; 5 (7.1%) patients believed that treatment would aggravate/ worsen their disease while 1 (1.4%) patient thought that treatment was expensive.