Louise Reiche: Dermatologist on New Zealand's decreasing acne rates

There's scepticism over our decreasing acne rates. 

New research in the British Journal of Dermatology has singled out New Zealand as the only country with decreasing rates, but only by a small amount. 

Germany had the highest rates of reported acne, while the rate in the UK had increased to almost 15% from 1990. 

Dermatologist Louise Reiche told Heather du Plessis-Allan the research is based on people who went to doctors for it. 

She wonders if it's down to not having as much acne, or maybe people aren't as bothered to see their doctor about it. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It turns out that we are the only country, as
far as we know, in the world where acne rates
are actually falling. Everywhere else they appear to be going up.
And to explain why, we have Louise Reiker from the
New Zealand Dermatological Society with us right now.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Ha, Louise, good morning here.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
So can we put this down to just us having
a better lifestyle, cleaner food, getting outdoors, more or less pollution.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
That kind of thing that would be very attractive, wouldn't
it that when you look at the details of the research,
they based it on the number of people who attended
health care appointments with respect to their acne. So then
you think, hmm, is it because people don't have as
much acney or they're not as bothered, they're not going

(00:40):
for as many appointments. Could it be that because New
Zealand actually is the head of the world in providing
access to the best medication for acne us a treasure
one that would be attractive because that would show that
having broader access to effective treatment for people really does
make a huge difference to healthcare workload but also more importantly,

(01:04):
to patient disease burden. But another explanation might be sadly,
because our workforce is so short that it's too hard
for people to get into appointments, and therefore you don't
get the numbers recorded about coming to a team to
an appointment. About that, yeah, possibly don't get an appointment.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Possibly we don't even want to pay for the appointments
because we're a bit broke at the moment. How do
we actually find out then, How do we know for
once and for all whether we're actually doing well or
not well?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
We'd have to set up a complete new epidemiological study
to assess that.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Oh okay, so it's good job.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's not the nature of the study that we've undertaken
are compared to.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Right across the world, Louise, while I've got you, did
you see this thing on social media the other day
where are recommending that people that they being social media
and dotters who recommend that people with acne go and
get a sunburn or sit in a tanning bed to
get rid of it.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
No, I didn't see that. We do know you well,
you weren't going to start as getting a sunburn. We
do know that the sunlight is imminisuppressive and it will
help acne. But you can get the improvement without the
sunburn by putting on a non oily sunscreen before you
get out and get to that door. Exerit.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Oh okay, so at the heart of a bit of
sun is a good thing. Just too much sun not, Louise,
Thank you, appreciate it. Louise rikat New Zealand Dermatological Society.
For more from The mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.