title: The duration of acne treatment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acne has a ~90% lifetime prevalence, however the duration of the condition and its treatment is not well characterized. The purpose of this study was to estimate for how long acne patients are treated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Electronic patient records from an academic practice were queried to identify dermatology visits with an acne diagnosis (ICD-9: 706.1) between January 1, 2009 and June 1, 2012. The duration of care for acne treatment was calculated as the time between the earliest and latest visits. Kaplan Meier analyses were used to describe treatment duration
  
  
  RESULTS
  1,130 patients had at least one visit acne-related visit to a dermatologist, with 631 (56%) having only one visit and 499 (44%) having multiple visits over the study period. For patients with multiple visits, the mean duration from first to last visit was 0.57 year (95% CI: 0.52, 0.62); 25% ceased visiting in 0.25 year, 50% in 0.40 year, and 75% in 0.64 year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study provides a lower limit on the duration of acne treatment. The duration of acne treatment is longer than the duration of typical acne clinical trials. Understanding the duration of the disease can help set patients' treatment expectations, which may help improve adherence.
authors.forename: Karen E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: S Evan
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Carstensen
authors.forename: Steven R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Feldman
mesh_terms: D000152:Acne Vulgaris / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003879:Dermatologic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003880:Dermatology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D003879:Dermatologic Agents