Association of Dairy Foods in Acne Vulgaris

Background: Acne vulgaris is one of the most commonly found skin problems affecting teenagers and adolescents. Dietary foods particularly dairy products consist of milk or any of its food made from milk are frequently regarded by patients and clinicians as a cause or aggravator of acne. As there are very limited studies found on this regard, this study was aimed to find the association of dairy foods in acne vulgaris. Methods: This wasa cross-sectional analytical study and was carried out in the Dermatology and Venereology department of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital. Total 260 patients were selected by appropriate inclusion criteria equally into two groups: Group A (diagnosed with acne vulgaris, n=130) and group B (patients not having acne vulgaris, n=130). A thorough history of every patient and face to face interview was taken by a predesigned questionnaire after getting the written informed consent of the patient. Data were collected in predetermined data collection form. Result were subjected to standard statistical evaluation and were analyzed by SPSS-24. Results: According to the age group, majority of the acne patients were between 10-20 years (75.4% in group A and 63.8% in group B, p<0.05), though mean age in both groups were statistically similar (18.53±5.78 and 17.29±4.59 years, respectively). Also, female respondents were predominant in both groups (80.8% and 72.3%). The risk was increased in those with a family history of acne in siblings (OR2.449, p=0.021;95% CI,1.145-5.238) and the risk was reduced in subjects doing physical exercise. Papules (35.4%) and comedones (27.7%) were most common lesion and mostly found in forehead (74.6%) and left (68.5%) and right (63.1%) cheeks. According to global acne severity grading, majority had mild form of acne (83.1%) and use of cosmetics (43.8% vs. 30%), topical steroid (34.6% vs. 16.9%), taking fastfood (24.6% vs. 14.6%) and less water intake (36.9% vs. 18.5%) also significantly higher among acne patients. Multivariate regression analysis showed, dairy products such as whole milk (OR 1.984, p=0.022), chocolate (2.490, p=0.004), chips (OR 3.207, p<0.001), Pizza (OR 2.388, p=0.021) and red meat (OR 3.055, p=0.009) were significant risk for developing acne vulgaris. Also, whole milk (3.050, p=0.01), chocolate (3.817, p=0.004) and pizza (3.822, p=0.005) were independent risk factors for moderate to severe acne. Conclusion:  This study found an association between high dairy product consumption and acne in adolescents, indicating that dairy consumption may be a contributing factor for developing acne vulgaris. J Shaheed Suhrawardy Med Coll 2022; 14(2): 25-33