Wastage of family income on skin disease in Mexico

Abstract

Working in the community of Cayaco, 10 km from Acapulco, we conducted our initial survey using proved field methods.2 It included a house to house questionnaire survey designed by the group to study the distribution of skin disease and the use and cost of treatments, including travel expenses, medical bills, and drugs. These figures were based on patients' estimates but were cross checked with prices in retail pharmacies. We also estimated the loss of work or schooling resulting from skin disease. The diagnosis in patients describing skin lesions in the initial survey was validated by physical examination in an outpatient clinic and in a separate random survey in 120 primary school children. Treatment was judged to have been ineffective if patients had the same lesions and symptoms for which they had been treated during the previous six months. Regression analysis was carried out using the software package NANOSTAT.