Illness acceptance among young adults with acne: a cross-sectional study

Introduction:
The level of acceptance of acne can have a substantial impact on improving patients’ mood and quality of life.

Aim:
To investigate the level of acne vulgaris acceptance among young patients and its correlation with disease severity, quality of life, and feelings of stigmatization.

Material and methods:
The study was conducted on 213 young individuals diagnosed with acne. A variety of questionnaires were employed to measure the psychological aspects of the condition, including illness acceptance, quality of life, and feeling of stigmatization.

Results:
Based on the Global Evaluation Acne (GEA) scale, 45% of participants had mild acne, 31.7% had minimal acne, and 23.3% had moderate acne. The Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS) scores ranged from 13 to 40, with a mean of 37.0 ±5.2 points. Males had higher illness acceptance (mean score: 37.7 vs. 36.5 points; p = 0.027). Most participants (87.6%) had high illness acceptance. The greatest challenge was adjusting to disease limitations. A significant negative correlation was found between acne severity and illness acceptance (r = –0.277; p < 0.001), between AIS scores and both QoL impairment (measured by the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and the Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADI)) (r = –0.499 and r = –0.621, respectively; p < 0.001 for both) as well as between AIS scores and the 6-Item Stigmatization Scale (6-ISS) (r = –0.621, p < 0.001).

Conclusions:
The level of acne acceptance depends on gender and the severity of acne lesions. Based on the study results, we hypothesize that an intervention aimed at increasing the level of disease acceptance could improve patients’ psychological well-being and ability to cope with the condition.