Patient Preferences for Acne Vulgaris Treatment and Barriers to Care: A Survey Study

The associated direct and indirect costs of acquiring acne vulgaris (acne) treatment from a clinician may prohibit some patients from doing so. Barriers to care may also influence patient preferences for treatment, and while both over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription acne treatments are efficacious, preferences for OTC or prescription acne medications are not well established. We recruited 529 adult subjects from the United States through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), and subjects were surveyed about acne, their acne treatment preferences, and any barriers to care. A total of 450 subjects passed the attention check and were included in the analysis. Of respondents who had tried both OTC and prescription treatments (n=223), more respondents reported that they preferred prescription treatments (130/223, 58.3%), compared with OTC treatments (64/223, 28.7%); or no preference (29/223, 13.0%; P=0.00001). Almost half of all respondents also stated that they experienced barriers to accessing medical care for acne treatment (192/450 42.7%); cost and transportation were the top 2 factors. Considering how common barriers are, and their everchanging nature, some patients may benefit from a discussion of alternative non-prescription acne treatments, serving as a bridge to therapy or while patients are unable to reach a medical provider. J Drugs Dermatol. 2022;21(11):1191-1195. doi:10.36849/JDD.6940.