Impact of facial and truncal acne on quality of life: A multi-country population-based survey.

Background: Acne confers an increased risk of physical, psychiatric, and psychosocial sequelae, potentially affecting multiple dimensions of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Morbidity associated with truncal acne is poorly understood.
Objective: To determine how severity and location of acne lesions impact the HRQoL of those who suffer from it.
Methods: A total of 694 subjects with combined facial and truncal acne (F+T) and 615 with facial acne only (F) participated in an online, international survey. Participants self-graded the severity of their acne at different anatomical locations and completed the dermatology life quality index (DLQI).
Results: The F+T participants were twice as likely to report "very large" to "extremely large" impact on HRQoL (ie, DLQI > 10 and children's DLQI [CDLQI] > 12) as compared with the F participants (DLQI: odds ratio [OR] 1.61 [95% confidence interval {CI} 1.02-2.54]; CDLQI: OR 1.86 [95% CI 1.10-3.14]). The impact of acne on HRQoL increased with increasing acne severity on the face (DLQI and CDLQI P values = .001 and .017, respectively), chest ( P  = .003; P  = .008), and back ( P  = .001; P  = .028).
Limitations: Temporal evaluation of acne impact was not estimated.
Conclusions: Facial and truncal acne was associated with a greater impact on HRQoL than facial acne alone. Increasing severity of truncal acne increases the adverse impact on HRQoL irrespective of the severity of facial acne.
Competing Interests: Dr Tan has acted as a consultant for and/or received grants/honoraria from Bausch, 10.13039/501100009754Galderma, 10.13039/100004319Pfizer, Almirall, Boots/10.13039/100005153Walgreens, Botanix, Cipher, 10.13039/501100009754Galderma, Novan, 10.13039/100004336Novartis, Promius, 10.13039/501100004296Sun, Vichy. Dr Chavda is an employee of Galderma. Dr Beissert, Dr Cook-Bolden, Dr Harper, Dr Hebert, Dr Lain, Dr Layton, Dr Weiss, and Pr Dréno have acted as investigators and consultants for Galderma. Dr Rocha has acted as an advisor and/or speaker and received honoraria from Eucerin, Galderma, Johnson&Johnson and Leo Pharm.
(© 2021 by the American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc.)