Development and evaluation of a Global Acne Severity Scale (GEA Scale) suitable for France and Europe

Many acne grading methods exist; however, there is no agreed-upon standard. Our objective was to create and validate a reproducible acne assessment scale for rating the severity of juvenile facial acne suitable for use in France and Europe.

The scale we created described the different types of acne lesions in a manner similar to global assessment scales used in clinical trials. The scale was then validated by seven expert dermatologists in the field of acne [the Global Evaluation Acne (GEA) group] first on 34 photographic cases of Caucasian acne patients and second by clinical examination of 22 acne patients.

There was good agreement in Investigators' assessments of acne both on photographs and patients (R = 0.8057; P < 0.0001, and R = 0.8437; P = 0.0015).

The GEA Scale is a global scale validated both on photographs and acne patients which can be used either in clinical research or by the dermatologist in his office.