Prevalence of paediatric dermatoses among patients attending Dermatology outpatient department in a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry

Background: Skin diseases are a major health problem in the paediatric age group and are associated with significant morbidity. Dermatoses in children are more influenced by socioeconomic status, dietary habits, climatic exposure and external environment as compared to adults. The present study was undertaken to know the prevalence of paediatric dermatoses among patients attending Dermatology outpatient department in a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry. Methods: All newly diagnosed, untreated male and female paediatric patients (from neonates to adolescents ≤19 years of age) attending Dermatology OPD, from October 2015 to September 2017 were evaluated to study the prevalence and patterns of paediatric dermatoses. The skin disorders were classified into groups like infections, infestations, eczemas, acne, hypersensitivity disorders, sweat gland disorders, pigmentary disorders, nevi, keratinisation disorders, hair and scalp disorders, papulosquamous disorders, bullous disorders, nail disorders, drug reactions, other dermatoses. Results: The prevalence of pediatric dermatoses in our OPD is 25.21%. Incidence of pediatric dermatoses was found to be more in males 237 (59.39%) than in females 162 (40.60%) and the majority of the patients were in adolescent age group (217; 54.38%). Present study showed that majority of cases belonged to the lower socioeconomic group 186(46.6 %). In our study, majority (58.98%) of dermatoses belonged to infections and infestations group. Of the infective dermatoses, fungal infections (27.88%) were the most common. Conclusions: Infectious dermatoses were commonly seen in this study that may be due to poverty, overcrowding, poor hygiene. There is an increasing trend of fungal infections which might be related to hygiene and environment.