Early education may boost acne health literacy, treatment compliance among adolescents

Key takeaways:

• 43.5% of adolescents never sought information about acne and only 0.3% consulted a physician.
• All knowledge categories increased after participating in the Acne Education Project.

Researchers found that early acne education may improve acne health literacy and encourage help-seeking behavior in adolescents, according to a study.

Based in Canada, the Acne Education Project is a medical student-led initiative created to increase acne health literacy by providing evidence-based resources to young adolescents aged 9 to 13 years.

“Despite high prevalence, acne health literacy remains poor and past research demonstrated that Canadian youth suffer in silence for over a year before seeking support,” Vincent Wan, BSc, of the Faculty of Medicine at University of British Columbia in Canada, and colleagues wrote. “These findings are concerning, given the potential severity of social stigma and psychological impacts associated with acne.”

To evaluate the potential role of early acne education in young adolescents, the researchers conducted a quality improvement survey among 676 individuals that participated in the Acne Education Project.

Prior to participating in the project, 43.5% of respondents expressed never actively seeking information about acne. Respondents reported getting most of their acne information from family and friends (39.4%) and even TikTok (13.1%), whereas only 0.3% of respondents consulted a physician.

While 58.9% of respondents agreed acne was treatable, only 17.5% thought it could be treated with medications. Further, 50.9% and 50.2% incorrectly believed that dirt build-up and poor hygiene were contributing factors to acne pathogenesis, respectively, according to the authors.

However, after undergoing the program, respondents’ knowledge scores increased significantly compared with their pre-intervention scores. Using average linear mixed-effects models, the researchers found that respondents were significantly more confident with their general acne knowledge, acne prevention strategies, acne-related mental health and help-seeking behavior by (P < .001 for all).

“Our results were encouraging as they demonstrated increased confidence in knowledge of acne prevention, awareness of mental health ramifications and increased comfort in seeking help post-intervention,” the authors concluded.