Has acne increased? Prevalence of acne history among university students between 1948 and 1968. The Glasgow Alumni Cohort Study

Conflicts of interest: none declared. Sir, Acne vulgaris is one of the most common skin disorders.1 Most cases of acne occur in nonsevere forms, but acne carries a social stigma and has considerable impact on emotional health among adolescents.2 The onset of acne incidence is at puberty, incidence peaks around 18 years of age and it has generally receded by the mid‐twenties.3 The prevalence of acne is very high during adolescence,4 leading some authors to suggest that almost everyone has this condition to some extent. A study in the U.K. found acne in 56% of boys and 45% of girls aged 14–16 years.2 A report in the U.K. indicated that referral to a dermatology department because of acne in adult women had increased during the last 10 years.5 Although data from the mid‐twentieth century onwards do not suggest an increasing trend in prevalence among adolescents,6 there is a paucity of such data and further analyses are warranted. We therefore investigated the prevalence of a history of acne among male students, with an average age of 20 years, who attended Glasgow University between 1948 and 1968.