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Published on: November 1, 2024
The duration of acne treatment
Background:
Acne has a ~90% lifetime prevalence, however the duration of the condition and its treatment is not well characterized. The purpose of this study was to estimate for how long acne patients are treated.
Methods:
Electronic patient records from an academic practice were queried to identify dermatology visits with an acne diagnosis (ICD-9: 706.1) between January 1, 2009 and June 1, 2012. The duration of care for acne treatment was calculated as the time between the earliest and latest visits. Kaplan Meier analyses were used to describe treatment duration
Results:
1,130 patients had at least one visit acne-related visit to a dermatologist, with 631 (56%) having only one visit and 499 (44%) having multiple visits over the study period. For patients with multiple visits, the mean duration from first to last visit was 0.57 year (95% CI: 0.52, 0.62); 25% ceased visiting in 0.25 year, 50% in 0.40 year, and 75% in 0.64 year.
Conclusion:
Our study provides a lower limit on the duration of acne treatment. The duration of acne treatment is longer than the duration of typical acne clinical trials. Understanding the duration of the disease can help set patients' treatment expectations, which may help improve adherence.
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