THE PREVALENCE OF FACIAL ACNE IN PERUVIAN ADOLESCENTS AND ITS RELATION TO THEIR ETHNICITY

Purpose: This article describes the prevalence of facial acne vulgaris in adolescents of Arequipa, Peru, in relation to ethnic characteristi cs. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 2214 healthy adolesce nts, 55.83% male and 44.17% female, 12-18 years old. Based on visual i nspection, the severity of acne was classified into four grades. The a dolescents studied were divided into three ethnic groups: whites, Mest izos, and Indians. Results: Less than half of the adolescents (41.69%) had acne: 33.74% grade 1, 5.19% grade 2, 2.12% grade 3, and 0.63% gra de 4. The prevalence of acne varied from 16.33% at 12 years to 71.23% at 17 years. At age 12 and 13 years, the prevalence of acne was higher in females, with the trend reversing over age 14 years. The overall p revalence of acne was significantly less in Indians (27.97%) than in M estizos (43.08%) or whites (44.47%). More acne was found in postmenarc he (39.90%) than in premenarche (20.99%). This trend was also true for the severity of acne. Conclusions: The prevalence of acne in the adol escents of Arequipa is significantly less than in Caucasians. Peruvian Indians have significantly less acne than Peruvian whites or Mestizos . It seems that ethnicity is an important predictor of not only the pr evalence, but also the severity of juvenile acne vulgaris in this samp le. (C) Society for Adolescent Medicine, 1998.