Socio-psychological effects of acne among undergraduates of the University of Ibadan

Background: Acne is a skin disorder that is common among adolescents. The various degrees of distortion of facial appearance could have some socio-psychological effects on sufferers. Objectives: The objectives of this research, within the study population (undergraduates of the University of Ibadan), were: To determine the gender prevalence of acne, to evaluate the socio- psychological effect of acne and to evaluate socio-psychological effects of acne in relation to the severity of the condition. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study with pre-tested questionnaires administered to 100 undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize data and categorical variables were compared with Chi-square at a level of significance of p < 0.05. Results: The response rate was 100%. Gender prevalence showed that 70% of the students with acne are females with 30% being males. Twenty-seven (27%) of the respondents indicated high social effects, 8 (8%) indicated average score while 65 (65%) showed a high social effects. Fourteen (14%) of the respondent had low emotional effects, 1 (1%) had average score while 85 (85%) had a high emotional effects . Twenty respondents (20%) had low psychological effects, 6 (6%) had an average response and 74 (74%) had high psychological effects. Conclusions: Acne is more prevalent in females than in males among undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan. The socio-psychological effect of acne was found to be more in students with milder form of acne.