A Study on Acne Patients’ Levels of Obtaining Information Through Social Media and Applying These Information

The purpose of this study is to determine the level and way of the internet usagefor reaching alternative methods, the level of obtaining information about thetreatment of acne vulgaris (AV), i.e. pustule through social media, and the level ofusing this acquired information in patients diagnosed with AV which is known aspustule colloquially. In the study, the face-to-face interview technique was appliedto a total of 121 patients diagnosed with AV who applied to Dermatology OutpatientClinic of Sivas Cumhuriyet University. An interview form questioning the patients’socio-demographic characteristics, frequency of using internet and media, theirsocial media accounts, their level of searching about their diseases through thesetools, their level of acquiring information and status of realizing them as well asacne severity (PA), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and Acne-Specific Qualityof Life Index (AQOL) was applied to the patients. The interviewed patients’ levelsof following the contents in the social and traditional media about the acne diseasewere found to be high, 51.2% of them were following the contents about the disease,and 55.4% were applying what they learnt. Variables of purchasing products atleast once from the social media for the acne disease (p=0.026<0.05) and counselinga physician before the usage (p=0.034<0.05) were determined to have a significanteffect on social media usage. It was concluded that the social media usage of acnepatients had a significant effect in terms of AQOL (p=0.012<0.05) and the probabilityof accessing information from social media in terms of this index increased by 2.444items (Exp:2.444). However, the effect of Acne Quality of Life Index was found tobe lower than the dermatology life quality index. As a result of this study, due tothe properties of acne vulgaris negatively reflecting disease on the social life of aperson emotionally and behaviorally, the frequency of using CAM (complementaryand alternative medicine) was high. Therefore, all mass media, especially socialmedia, are frequently used by the patients because of the information they provideconcerning this issue.