TUESDAY, Jan. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Overweight and obese girls are twice as likely to have moderate to severe acne, but this is not the case for overweight boys, according to a study published in the January issue of the Archives of Dermatology.
Jon Anders Halvorsen, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Oslo in Norway, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional population-based study of acne and body mass index (BMI) in adolescent boys and girls aged 18 and 19 years. Data on acne and BMI were collected via questionnaires from more than 3,500 adolescents. Individuals with a BMI of ≥25 kg/m² were classified as overweight or obese.
The researchers found that 9.5 percent of girls and 15.4 percent of boys were overweight. Acne was present in 18.5 percent of overweight or obese girls and in 13.6 percent of boys. Girls were twice as likely to have moderate or severe acne if they were overweight or obese, whereas no association was observed between BMI and acne for adolescent boys.
"This study demonstrates that overweight and obesity are associated with acne in girls aged 18 and 19, but the same association was not observed in boys," the authors write.
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