Analyzing global differences in acne vulgaris incidence across Africa and the Middle East

Summary: Abstract Body: Acne vulgaris remains a common dermatological condition, but its geographic variation across Africa and the Middle East has not been extensively studied. Data on yearly acne vulgaris incidence rates for 66 countries in Africa and the nearby Middle East from 2017 to 2021 was obtained. These metrics were taken from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. These countries were grouped into five geographical regions guided by World Health Organizations designations: “North Africa and Middle East”, “Central Sub-Saharan Africa”, “Western Sub-Saharan Africa”, “Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa”, and “Southern Sub-Saharan Africa”. To ascertain whether there were overall differences in acne vulgaris incidence rates across regions, a One-Way Analysis of Variance was performed, which yielded statistically significant results (p<2e-16). Next, a post-hoc pairwise comparison to determine which pairs of regions are likely to experience differences in rates was conducted. Since a total of 10 pairwise comparisons were performed, potentially leading to extremely high probability of making at least one Type I error, a Bonferonni correction was included to maintain the overall error rate at 5%. EEastern Sub-Saharan Africa has significantly higher acne vulgaris incidence compared to North Africa (p=2.0e-14) as well as Central (p=1.3e-08), Western (p=4.2e-15), and Southern (p=1.7e-13) Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the other four regions do not seem to have statistically significant differences between them. These findings highlight a notable regional disparity in acne incidence within Africa and the Middle East, warranting further studies into potential environmental, genetic, and socio-economic contributors to this variation. Managing acne vulgaris remains challenging, requiring more targeted interventions to reduce its burden and the health equity gap in less resourced regions. Ashna Khare³, Martin Pollack¹, Eric Yang², John Griswold³ 1. Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States. 2. University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States. 3. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, United States. Minoritized Populations and Health Disparities Research