Burden of dermatological manifestations across various age groups of a Hilly State in North India

Abstract

Background: The dermatological condition accounts for an important public health problem of the global load of disease in low and middle-income countries and places significant pressure on primary healthcare centers. There is heterogeneity in the frequency of diverse skin conditions between different areas (1). Most of the knowledge presently available about various aspects of skin diseases is based on observations made and data collected from secondary and tertiary level hospitals (2). Information on community-based prevalence and pattern of skin diseases would be a better measure of burden due to skin diseases in general population in order to assist in the planning of possible intervention strategies (3). Aims & Objectives: To find out the prevalence, distribution, and determinants of various dermatological manifestations at the community level in Doiwala block of district Dehradun. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of 12 months, the study subjects comprised of individuals of all age groups. A sample size of 834 (416 males & 418 females) was calculated by using current prevalence of skin diseases (43.7% in males & 44.7% in females) in Uttarakhand (1). Results: Nearly half of the studied population (45.8%) had some type of dermatological manifestations. It was slightly higher in females (47.1%) than males (44.5%). Out of 382 symptomatic respondents, 247 (64.7) had infective dermatoses followed by 124 (32.5%) non-infective, 6 (1.5%) others and 5 (1.3%) nutritional deficiency dermatoses. The gender-wise distribution of various types of dermatoses was found to be statistically significant (?²-15.225, df-3, p-0.002). Conclusions: The prevalence of dermatological conditions in district Dehradun is fairly high with increased prevalence in the younger age group that might be an indicator to the fact that the burden of skin diseases may go to rise in the future.