The Utility of Assessing Neck Acne

Abstract

Background:

Acne grading is an essential component in establishing treatment options, but little is known on how neck acne should be incorporated into grading scales.

Objective:

Our objective was to explore the prevalence of neck acne and determine if its own severity category on an acne global grading scale was warranted.

Methods:

Acne severity was assessed in 6 categories: face, chest, back, anterior upper (AUN), anterior lower neck (ALN), and posterior neck (PN).

Results:

The overall prevalence of neck acne was 49%. Of these, 44% had AUN acne, 18.5% had ALN acne, and 19.8% had PN acne. AUN and facial acne had a significant correlation (r = 0.37, P < .05). No correlation was seen amongst other areas. Males presented with a significantly higher severity of AUN (mean [SD], 1.37 [1.09]) than females (mean [SD], 0.52 [0.91]), on average.

Conclusions:

While neck acne has proven to be common amongst those with acne on other areas of the body, facial acne can be used as a proxy for classification, as neck severity is usually milder.