The evaluation of perception, attitute and knowledge level about acne in medical school students

The Evaluation of Perception, Attitute and Knowledge Level about Acne in Medical School Students Introduction and Purpose: Acne vulgaris is a chronic inflammatory disease of the pilo-sebaceous unit, usually seen at puberty but also seen in all ages. A study made in France, reported that if the patients have poor knowledge about their diseases, their compliance to treatment also is being poorer. There are a few reports in the literature about the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of medical school students who going to be family physician after graduation, about acne vulgaris. In this study, we tried to evaluate the perception, attitude and knowledge level of medical school students about acne vulgaris. Material and Methods: The first year students who haven't got theoretical and clinical education, fourth year students who have only theoretical education, and sixth year (last year) students who have both theoretical and clinical education about the acne vulgaris are enrolled in the study. All participants were from Inonu University Faculty of Medicine. There were 593 students from the 1st, 2nd and 6th classes and 495 (83,47%) of whom accepted to be volunteer and enrolled in the study. A questionnaire which contains of 35 questions to evaluate students' perception, attitude and knowledge was wanted to fulfill from all participants. The students who have acne vulgaris lesions were evaluated with Global Acne Grading System (GAGS) by dermatologist. Results: 215 (43,43%) of the participants were in the first class, 154 (31,11%) of them in the fourth the class and 126 (25,45%) of them were in the sixth class. The students specified the cause of the acne vulgaris as stress (82,8%), hormonal reasons (78,2%), diet (70,7%), dirty skin (69,7%), infection (microbial reasons) (55,6%), genetic (53,1%) and liver diseases (30,5%). The participants indicated that fatty food (84,8%), nuts (70,9%), chocolate (54,5%), hamburger (47,9%), spices (43,4%), pizza (35,4%), cola drinks (24,4%), milk and dairy products (17,6%) can aggravate the acne lesions. Statistically significant difference was determined between the classes (p<0,05). Only 92 (18,6%) of the students reported that milk and dairy products can increase acne lesions. First class students declared internet (40,5%) and remained participants (fourth and sixth classes) declared medicine faculty lectures and clinical education as their knowledge supply (79,2% and 90,5% respectively). The students were asked for evaluating their acne severity and 19,8% of the students reported that they haven't got acne lesions, and the remained students reported their acne severity as 45,9% mild, 27,7% moderate, 6,1% severe and 0,6% very severe. However, according to the examination performed by a dermatologist with GAGS resulted as mild, moderate, and severe (62%, 14,7%, and 1,2% respectively) in all participants. Remained 22% of the students have no acne lesions and very severe acne was not determined. Conclusion: In this study, we determined that the knowledge level of the medical students about acne vulgaris is increasing according to their education level. The knowledge level of medical students who are family physician candidates is very important to increase the awareness of the community. This type of studies may help to determine the adequacy of the students' education. Key words: Acne vulgaris, education, knowledge level, medical school students, perception