Self esteem and body image perception in patients with acne vulgaris

Background: Acne, which is a chronic inflammatory disease of the pilosebaceous gland's, is the most common disease of the skin. Acne, which is very common in the community, affects approximately 85% of the population aged 12-24 years. Acne, which can affect the appearance of the person and can scar, can lead to many psychiatric problems in people. Among the problems it can cause acne; body image perception and decreased self-esteem. The aim of this work we have done is; investigate the effect of acne on patients' body image perception and self esteem through various variables. Materials and Methods: Our study was conducted case-control style. The universe of the study was composed of patients who applied to family medicine policlinic and dermatology policlinics of our university. The study included 75 patients between 01.11.2016-01.02.2017 admitted to outpatient clinics and 74 control patients were included. Before starting to work, the Dicle University Ethics Committee was approved. First, the patients participating in the study 'Informed Consent' taken is, case and control groups to demographic data form, global acne grading system (GAGS), body image scale and self-esteem scale were administered. In our study, the data were analyzed with 95% confidence using the SPSS 21 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) package program. Results and Conclusion:48.9% of the patients were female, 51.1% were male. 22% of the patients were smoking, 10% were using alcohol. The mean age of the case group was 23.93 ± 5.96 and the mean age of the control group was 25.74 ± 7.42. 6.1% of patients have never been to school, 6.04% graduated elementary school, 5.3% graduated middle high school , 37.58% graduated high school , 43.6% graduated university. Overall we evaluated the patients with acne; we could not observe a significant decrease in body image and self-esteem in these patients. When we look at the effects of acne severity; as the severity of acne increased, the patients' body senses and self-esteem deteriorated. We could not determine the effect of acne time and sex on these parameters. As the educational status of the patients increased, their perceptions and self esteem increased. In acne patients who smoked, self-esteem was low, body perceptions were preserved.