Acne Awareness
Introduction - Prevalence of Acne
|
The prevalence of facial acne, the most frequently occurring of the skin conditions,
increases with age more rapidly among younger than older youths, from 39.0 per 100 at age 12 years to 86.4 per 100 at age 17 years. Such conditions are slightly more prevalent among girls (69.8 per 100) than boys (66.4 per 100). However, the increase in prevalence rates with age is more rapid and consistent among boys than girls. Facial acne is substantially less prevalent among younger boys than girls. At 12 years, only one-fourth of the boys compared with more than half (53 percent) of the girls had facial acne. By the midteens—ages 14 and 15 years—the sex difference in the rates is negligible, while by 16 and 17 years boys are more likely than girls to have such a condition. Among youths who have facial acne, the condition is more likely to be limited to comedones (blackheads) with little or no inflammatory reaction-nearly three-fifths were classified as grade I—than more severe inflammatory lesions. The facial acne, when present, tended to be more severe among boys than girls. In nearly half of the boys with facial acne (49 percent), compared with about one-third (34 percent) of the girls, the conditions were moderate to severe (graded H-IV) with extensive inflammatory lesions. Among boys with facial acne the proportion that had moderate or severe conditions increased five-fold with age from 12 percent at 12 years to 62 percent at 17 years, while among girls there was less than a two-fold increase from 23 percent at 12 years to 39 percent at 17 years.(1) |
||