Visits to dermatologists for acne treatment averaged 9 months

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The average span of time that patients visited dermatologists for acne treatment was about three-quarters of a year, according to late-breaking research presented at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting.

“Many patients who continue to see their dermatologist do so for more than 5 months,” Karen E. Huang, MS, research specialist at the Center for Dermatology Research, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, N.C., told Healio.com. “By setting patients’ expectations of treatment duration, dermatologists may be able to help improve patient adherence to treatment plans, a goal which is crucial for positive health outcomes.”

Karen E. Huang

To estimate how long patients with acne were treated, researchers identified dermatology visits between Jan. 1, 2009 and Nov. 15, 2012 at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Time between earliest and latest visits was calculated as duration of care, and research was stratified by the most intensive treatment a patient received, including topical products, non-isotretinoin oral products and isotretinoin. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to describe how long patients continued their visits.

“We analyzed how long the patients were continuing to interact with their dermatologists in clinic, rather than … how long the acne persisted itself,” Huang said.

There were 2,250 patients with at least one acne-related visit with a dermatologist. Forty-three percent of patients had multiple visits, with a mean duration of 0.79 years (95% CI, 0.74 years-0.85 years) from first to last visit. Twenty-five percent of patients continued to see their dermatologists for about 1 year, while 50% met their dermatologists for four-tenths of a year.

“What may be striking to dermatologists is patients who receive isotretinoin compared to patients who only receive at most other oral acne treatments or topical acne treatments often visit dermatologists for shorter periods [log-rank test, P=.004],” Huang said.

Using ClinicalTrials.gov to review 40 of the most recent acne studies, researchers found that those visits extended across 12 weeks.

“It may be of interest in the future to consider designing clinical trials that more closely simulate how long an average patient is treated,” Huang said.

Study limitations, Huang said, included possible omission of over-the-counter acne treatments if they were not included in medical data.

Disclosure: The Center for Dermatology Research is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Galderma Laboratories. Researcher Steven R. Feldman, MD, PhD, reported numerous financial disclosures.

For more information:
Huang KE. S018 – Late-breaking research: The Duration of Acne Treatment. Presented at: American Academy of Dermatology 2013 Annual Meeting; March 1-5, Miami Beach, Fla.