Background: Acne vulgaris is the most common inflammatory disorder of pilosebaceous glands and has a substantial impact on patients’ quality of life. Systemic antibiotics are known to be effective in its treatment. Adherence to acne medication is poor and is a major reason why treatment plans are ineffective. This study is undertaken to compare the efficacy of oral Azithromycin and Tetracycline’s and to assess the quality of life and medication adherence among acne vulgaris patients.

Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted with 160 acne vulgaris patients for a period of six months in the Dermatology Dept. of a multispecialty tertiary care hospital. The Global Acne Grading System, Cardiff Acne Disability Index, ECOB questionnaire was used to study efficacy, quality of life and medication adherence respectively.

Results: It was found that 13-20 years age group, females, students were more affected with acne. Most of the patients have family history of acne, have oily skin and non-vegetarian food habit. Smoking and alcohol habit have a significant impact on acne vulgaris. Regarding with the efficacy, azithromycin has better efficacy than tetracycline. Acne has significant impact on the quality of life of majority of patients’ especially in females before treatment and after the treatment it was improved. The medication adherence assessment reveals Azithromycin group has showed a slightly better medication adherence than Tetracycline group.

Conclusion: Results of the present study demonstrated that azithromycin, a long acting macrolide, can be an acceptable alternative for tetracycline in treatment of inflammatory acne and given the long half-life, low complications and higher patient compliance.

Keywords: Acne vulgaris, Azithromycin, Tetracyclines, Medication adherence, Quality of life.

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C. D. Shaji Selvin

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