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J Invest Dermatol 2009; Advance online publication
MedWire News: The risk for acne may be linked with the X chromosome, say researchers after finding that mothers are more influential than fathers in determining its severity in teenagers.
The team studied risk factors for acne vulgaris among 1002 Iranian pupils in Tehran, of whom 499 were boys and 503 were girls. The mean age of participants in the cross-sectional study was 16 years.
The overall prevalence of acne was 93.3%, and was 94.4% for boys and 92.0% for girls.
Moderate-to-severe acne was observed in 14% of the group and was more common in those with than without a family history of the condition, at 19.9% versus 9.8%, respectively, and an odds ratio (OR) of 2.3.
The risk for suffering moderate-to-severe acne increased with the number of affected immediate members of the family, with a family history of acne carrying an OR of 1.7 in multivariate logistic regression.
Interestingly, the mother’s acne history was more important in determining its severity than the father’s, at corresponding ORs of 2.8 and 1.9. Both were more influential in determining acne severity than brothers or sisters.
Being aged at least 17 years was associated with an OR of 2.2 for moderate-to-severe acne compared with a younger age. Being a female smoker was also associated with an OR of 6.7 for this outcome.
In multiple logistic regression, having self-assessed oily or normal skin or physician-assessed seborrhea was associated with moderate-to-severe acne, at ORs of 2.6 and 2.8, respectively.
Moderate-to-severe acne was also associated with the premenstrual phase, mental stress, and eating sweet and oily foods, but not with gender, spicy foods, or smoking overall.
Reporting in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Christos Zouboulis (Dessau Medical Center, Germany) and colleagues say: “These findings clearly indicate a vertical transmission of a genetic risk factor that may be X-chromosome-linked.”