Why is Acne Care Online needed?

Acne is very common, and as well as causing physical symptoms (e.g. pain, scarring), it often makes people feel distressed and can lead to depression.

There is good evidence that certain acne creams, gels and facewashes (called ‘topical acne treatments’) work well for most acne, and don’t always need prescription. However, lots of young people don’t know about these treatments, or stop using them too soon because of side-effects or because they think they’re not working.

This often means that young people spend lots of money on cosmetic products that don’t really help, or end up being prescribed oral antibiotics where this might have been avoidable.

How will Acne Care Online help?

Acne Care Online will be an online toolkit that supports young people to:

• understand their treatment options and know where to get effective acne treatments
• avoid side effects from topical treatments (like stinging)
• use their treatment regularly to make sure it has the best chance of working

What are the stages of the research?

The Acne Care Online programme of research will have several different stages:

1.    Develop the online toolkit by working closely with a wide range of young people with acne, their families and health professionals to understand what will be most important and useful to include, and how to make it as interesting as possible.

2.    Randomised trial to test whether using the toolkit can:

• improve acne and how acne affects people’s lives
• reduce the use of antibiotics

3.    Explore how the toolkit works, by talking to those that have used it and analysing how they used it

4.    Explore the costs to the NHS and for patients of using the toolkit and estimate its value for money

Publications will appear here as they become available