Prevalence and quality of life in high school pupils with acne in Serbia.

Background/aim: Acne is a common problem in adolescent children with considerable emotional and psychological effects. The aim of this study was to determine the self-reported prevalence of acne and to assess its impact on the quality of life in high school pupils in Serbia.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in May 2011 in two medical high schools in Serbia. Only pupils who gave a written informed consent to participate in the study (n = 440) were asked to fill in two questionnaires: short demographic questionnaire and Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADI), a disease-specific questionnaire measuring disability induced by acne. Internal consistency (tested by Cronbach's alpha) and item-total score correlations (Spearman's correlation analysis) were used for reliability analyses.

Results: The study population consisted of 440 pupils, 281 from Belgrade and 159 from Uzice. Among them 371 (84.3%) were girls and 69 (15.7%) boys, with similar sex distribution in Belgrade and Uzice. The total mean age of pupils was 16.48 years (SD = 0.55). Out of 440 pupils 228 (51.8%) self-reported their acne. The acne prevalence was significantly higher in pupils from Uzice (73.6%) than in those from Belgrade (39.6%). The overall mean CADI score for the whole sample was 2.87 +/- 2.74, with the similar quality of life impairment in adolescents from Belgrade and from Uzice. The mean Cronbach's alpha was 0.82.

Conclusion: This study shows that the quality of life impairment due to acne is mild for the majority of the affected pupils. The Serbian version of the CADI is a reliable, valid, and valuable tool for assessing the impact of acne on the quality of life.