There is no correlation between acne severity and AQOLS/DLQI scores

The prevalence of psychiatric disorders is quite high in dermatological diseases. Psychiatric problems are also seen in acne, which involves young people in particular. In this study, carried out to evaluate the effect of acne on the quality of the social, school and private lives of university students, a total of 19 questions contained in AQOLS (Acne Quality of Life Scale) and DLQI (Dermatology Life Quality Index) were asked of the acne patients and healthy controls. The statistically significant relationships between the acne severity and AQOLS/DLQI as well as any possible differences between the AQOLS and DLQI scores in acne patients and healthy controls were investigated. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman correlation tests were used in statistical analyses. For reliability, Cronbach-alpha analysis was used. The ages of 108 patients, 67 females (62%) and 41 males (38%), ranged between 16 and 29 (20.43+/-1.92). The ages of 100 controls, 61 females (61%) and 39 males (39%), ranged between 18 and 24 (19.45 +/- 1.35). There were no significant relationships between acne severity and AQOLS/DLQI (p=0.767). No statistically significant correlation was found between the acne patients with scars and those without scars with respect to AQOLS (p=0.253) and DLQI (p=0.255) scores. Statistically, AQOLS (p=0.000) and DLQI (p=0.000) scores of the patients with acne were found to be significantly higher as compared to the control groups. Consequently, it has been found in our study that the life quality of acne patients can be affected by reasons other than acne severity and presence of scars. The reasons can be social, personal, emotional and school-related problems of the patients. For that reason, life quality of patients should be evaluated with psychiatric measurements other than AQOLS and DLQI. In conclusion, these scores are not good enough to evaluate acne patients's quality of life.