Impact of Socio-Demographic Characteristics on the Pattern of Skin Diseases Attending Different Dermatology Department of Public Hospitals Quetta, Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: The study was conducted to determine the pattern of skin diseases affecting by the socio-demographic characteristics of the patients visiting the dermatology department of public hospitals in Quetta, Pakistan. Methodology: The prospective cross-sectional study was undertaken using a self prepapred proforma to compile the data while interviewing the patients attending the Dermatology Department of two public hospitals of Quetta, Pakistan, in order to determine the relationship between the demographic characteristics of patients and pattern of skin diseases. Results: A total of 503 patients were enrolled in the study. Majority of the participants (33.8%) were categorized in the age group of 21-30 years. The most common patterns of skin diseases seen in outpatient department were eczema (21.5%), scabies (19.7%) and bacterial infections (12.7%). Inferential statistics revealed a significant relationship (p=0.001) between pattern of skin diseases and age, education, house occupancy, location and living standards of the study participants. Most of the patients were found to be living in a combined family system (65.6%), with poor living standards (81.7%) and uneducated (51.1%). Conclusion The current study presented that eczema and infectious diseases were the most common pattern of skin diseases in Quetta and they are significantly related with socio-demographics of the patients so it can be concluded that better health education, maintaining personal hygiene, and improvement in the standard of living may aid a lot in managing and preventing the common skin diseases.