Understanding the effects of acne
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding Acne Treatment Outcomes
IRAS ID
154353
Contact name
Alison Layton
Contact email
Research summary
The primary aim of this project is to gain insight into the expected outcomes of acne treatment on the part of acne patients and acne experts. Further, we plan to examine any discrepancies between these groups. This work will be used to inform measurement strategies in acne research and to develop new patient reported outcome measures.
Acne is the most common skin disease, affecting millions of individuals and accounting for millions of pounds in health care expenditure. Currently the ability of practitioners' to make evidence-based decisions the comparative effectiveness of acne therapies is limited by the lack of standardized outcomes data. The current project will attempt to achieve consensus on desirable acne treatment outcomes using an iterative Delphi process. These outcomes could then inform the development of standardized measurement strategies for assessment of interventions in future research and practice. The Delphi methodology is a flexible consensus building strategy that involves multiple rounds of data collection, including qualitative and quantitative responses.
Across these data collection rounds, participants are given feedback about the group’s response patterns in an attempt to achieve consensus on aspects of varying importance to the area of investigation. This methodology is ideally suited to gain insight into the desirable outcomes of acne treatment from the perspective of multiple stakeholders.
REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EM/1111
Date of REC Opinion
7 Aug 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion