Cigarette smoking and acne in adolescents: results from a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Previous studies on the association between smoking and acne have reported conflicting results. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between smoking and acne among school-going adolescents. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Smoking was defined as smoking > 3 cigarettes daily for 6 months or more. We defined acne as having > 20 retentional and/or inflammatory facial acne lesions. Multivariate (proportional) logistic regression models were used to adjust for confounding variables. RESULTS: Of the 594 participants, 36.2% had acne. Acne sufferers were less likely to smoke (18.1 vs. 23.7%, P = 0.10). In girls, smoking was significantly associated with lower prevalence of acne (adjusted OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.13, 0.82). Smoking, daily cigarette consumption and duration of smoking appeared to be protective in the development of inflammatory acne in girls. No significant associations between acne and smoking variables were detected among boys. Limitations: although this study suggests a significant negative association between smoking and inflammatory acne in girls, it does not prove causality. This association did show a trend for linear relationship. Because of the unexpected differences between boys and girls, sample size may have affected our results. CONCLUSION: The anti-inflammatory effects of smoking may inhibit the development of papulopustular acne in girls more than in boys. However, smoking should not be considered a therapeutic option for acne. Additional studies that consider possible differences across age, gender and type of acne are needed to clarify the association between smoking and acne.