INTRODUCTION
Because the United States of America is a multicultural and multiracial community, investigating the role culture and race play in perceptions, preferences, and decision making can help physicians provide quality information and recommend effective treatments for acne vulgaris. The literature is rich with examples of how perceptions of health and skin disease burden vary across races and cultures, but limited research has explored differences in preferred treatment attributes.1 This study aims to investigate the differences in people’s understanding of acne, their preferred sources of information about acne, and their treatment preferences.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2017 to February 2018. A one-time 31 item survey was administered with questions regarding demographic information such as age and gender, severity of acne, acne treatment preferences, treatment adherence, racial/ethnic background (participants were able to select more than one race), and perceptions of causes of acne, in addition to a 6 item Willingness to Pay (WTP) discrete choice experiment for evaluating treatment valuation. WTP asks how much money a person would pay for a certain treatment to reduce the burden of disease by a certain percentage.2
The survey was hosted in REDCap, a secure, web-based application and distributed to participants with self-identified acne through two different routes: an online based national research registry ResearchMatch and flyers posted on and around a university’s graduate and undergraduate campuses. ResearchMatch is a national electronic, web-based recruitment tool that was created through the Clinical & Translational Science Awards Consortium in 2009 and is maintained at Vanderbilt University. The database was searched for volunteers who identified as having acne, were 18 years or older, and spoke English. A total of 1,144 individuals were contacted and 121 participants completed the survey. An additional 96 participants were recruited via paper flyers.
Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis was performed with R. ANOVA and chi-squared tests were performed to determine the relationship between race and the variables detailed in the results section. To assess for knowledge of the causes of acne, participants had to identify all 4 choices provided as causes of acne (bacteria, clogged pores, excess oil, and inflammation) in order to be marked correct; otherwise, the question was marked incorrect. Anova and chi-squared tests were then run to correlate pass rate with race. For the 6 point WTP discrete choice experiment, the correlation between answers was determined to ensure
The survey was hosted in REDCap, a secure, web-based application and distributed to participants with self-identified acne through two different routes: an online based national research registry ResearchMatch and flyers posted on and around a university’s graduate and undergraduate campuses. ResearchMatch is a national electronic, web-based recruitment tool that was created through the Clinical & Translational Science Awards Consortium in 2009 and is maintained at Vanderbilt University. The database was searched for volunteers who identified as having acne, were 18 years or older, and spoke English. A total of 1,144 individuals were contacted and 121 participants completed the survey. An additional 96 participants were recruited via paper flyers.
Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis was performed with R. ANOVA and chi-squared tests were performed to determine the relationship between race and the variables detailed in the results section. To assess for knowledge of the causes of acne, participants had to identify all 4 choices provided as causes of acne (bacteria, clogged pores, excess oil, and inflammation) in order to be marked correct; otherwise, the question was marked incorrect. Anova and chi-squared tests were then run to correlate pass rate with race. For the 6 point WTP discrete choice experiment, the correlation between answers was determined to ensure
