Magnitude of Topical Corticosteroid Side Effects among Vitiligo Patients of Alert Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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Date
2021-05
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Introduction: The global prevalence of vitiligo lies within the range of 0.1% – 2%. It is the most
common disorder of pigmentation. It causes mild to severe psychological disturbance in more
than a third of affected individuals. Additionally, public attitude towards vitiligo is negative in
significant proportions of study subjects in countries like Ethiopia, adding to the psycho-social
trauma. Topical corticosteroids are the mainstay of treatment in most government facilities of
Ethiopia. Despite the relentless use of topical corticosteroids in general, and in Ethiopia in
particular, studies giving exact account of the prevalence and types of side-effects are very few.
Objective: The major objective of this study is to determine the magnitude of topical
corticosteroid side effects among vitiligo patients of ALERT Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This
study will also try to look into the differences in the incidence of adverse effects based on age,
sex and site of application. This study will further try to identify the intermittent application
pattern of topical corticosteroids least associated with adverse effects.
Methodology: Institution-based, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted from May-
August 2021. A total of 130 vitiligo patient who came to ALERT hospital for follow-up were
included in the study. Face-to-face structured interview and observation was used for data
collection. Data was entered using Epi-Info software version 7.1.4.0., and was cleaned,
exported to and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Tables, Frequencies, proportion and Graphs
along with measures of central tendency and dispersion were used to present the data as
needed.
Results: In relation to the local side effects observed, 85 (65.4%) of the study subjects had no
local side effect. Of the rest (45 patients), 27 (20.8%) had only 1 local side effect and 18 (13.8%)
had 2 local side effects. The most frequent local side effect was telangiectasia (recorded in 30
patients), followed by Epidermal atrophy (seen in 21 patients). The highest proportion of local
side effect per treatment site was observed over the flexural areas in which 5 (45.4%) of the 11
treatments in this region resulted in local side effects. This region was followed by breast and
neck, 44.4% and 34.4% of sites affected respectively. There was no statistically significant
difference based on sex or age in relation to the magnitude of local side-effects.
Conclusion: High incidence of local side effects was implicated in our study. The pattern of side effects
is however similar to available studies with few exceptions. Neck is witnessed to be one of the side
effect prone areas. Systemic side effects were negligible in our study.
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Keywords
Vitiligo patients,Corticosteroid