Impact of acne on quality of life of students at sultan Qaboos University

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of acne on the quality of life of students at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). Its secondary objective was to assess the influence of gender and severity of symptoms on the quality of life. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 students (40 males and 60 females) diagnosed with acne who attended the Student Clinic during a period of three months from September to December 2009. The Acne Quality Of Life index (Acne-QoL) questionnaire was used to assess the patient’s quality of life in four different domains: self-perception, social, emotional, and acne symptoms. Results: Acne affected all areas of the patients quality of life with the emotional domain found to be the most affected. Overall, female patients reported more adverse QoL effects. The mean score for self-perception for female students was 2.5 and 2.8 for males (p=0.300). The role-social domain approached a significant difference between genders (p=0.078). There was a statistically significant correlation between severity of acne symptoms and the other three domains. The correlation was highest between acne symptoms score and self-perception score. Conclusion: This study showed that acne affects the quality of life of affected SQU students treated by primary care physicians at the Student Clinic. Therefore, physicians should take into account the effect of acne on the persons’ quality of life when individualizing treatment.