Association between Acne and Body Mass Index: A Hospital Based Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Acne vulgaris is a common and chronic inflammatory skin disease of pilosebaceous unit. Obesity is one of the biggest problems in western life style but nowadays, the problem is increasing even in low and middle-income countries. Body Mass Index (BMI) is used to accurately measure obesity.

Objective: To find out the association between different categories of BMI and severity of acne.

Materials and methods: This was a cross sectional prospective study conducted in the outpatient department of Gandaki Medical College from January to July, 2017. All the newly diagnosed patients with acne were included in the study. Height and weight of the patients was recorded and BMI was calculated. BMI was categorized as underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. Type of lesions were noted and severity of acne was graded from 1 to 4.

Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 17.0 for windows. One-way Analysis of Variance between groups (ANOVA) test was applied. P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: There were altogether 249 patients with acne. Age of the patients ranged from 10 to 44 years with mean age of 20.82 ±5.9 years. Most of the patients were in the age group of 11-20 years. Female: male ratio was 1:1.4. Majority of patients (65.5%) had normal BMI. Most of the patients had Grade 2 acne (52.6%). There was no significant association between the BMI and severity of acne (p=0.129).

Conclusion: There was no significant association between BMI and severity of acne.