THURSDAY, Oct. 15, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- The global burden of acne increased from 1990 to 2023 and is set to continue increasing through 2050, according to a study published online Oct. 14 in JAMA Dermatology.
Pierina Parraga, from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the global burden of acne vulgaris using data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2023.
The researchers identified an estimated 54.4 million prevalent acne cases globally using the GBD 2023 case definition (674.1 per 100,000 persons); 56 and 44 percent of cases were among females and males, respectively. There were an estimated 27.8 million incident cases (344.4 per 100,000 persons), with acne accounting for 1.17 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs; 14.5 per 100,000 persons). No association was seen for acne with mortality, but it contributed to global skin disease burden, with a DALY burden exceeding that of basal cell carcinoma (2,612 DALYs globally) and of similar magnitude to that of squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, and psoriasis (1.33, 1.82, and 2.65 million DALYs, respectively). Global age-standardized incidence risks, prevalence risks, and DALY rates increased between 1990 and 2023 (67.3, 63.6, and 63.5 percent increases, respectively). By 2050, demography-plus-autoregressive integrated moving average projections estimated 37.5 million incident cases, 77 million prevalent cases, and 1.65 million DALYs globally.
"Long-term forecasts remain uncertain, despite incorporating projected demographic changes; they do not propagate the uncertainty in GBD estimates or account for future changes in health care utilization or diagnoses," the authors write.
One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
