The significance of gender in the pattern of skin diseases in Zaria, Nigeria.?

Abstract

Background: Skin diseases are common worldwide, although their frequency of occurrence varies from region to region. This is a histopathologic analysis with the aim of establishing possible gender difference in the occurrence of skin diseases in a tropical hospital.
Patients and Method: A 14-year histopathological analysis of consecutive patients with skin lesions from January 1991 to December 2004 was carried out. The skin biopsies were fixed in 10% formalin, processed in wax and histological sections on slides, stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin, were studied.
Results: Three hundred and twenty (320) patients were analysed. The overall male: female ratio was 1.3:1.0. The median age for the women was 28years while the male median age was 32years. The skin diseases were divided into eight (8) aetiologic/histologic groups. Of these, viral accounted for 92(28.8%) and papulosquamous was 86 (26.9%). The least common were fungal- 9 (2.8%) and bacterial 3 (0.9%). Using the Chi-square test, there was no statistical significant difference in the sex distribution of skin diseases.
Conclusion: There was no gender difference in the pattern of occurrence of skin diseases in our setting.


Keywords: Skin Disease, Gender, Pattern

Highland Medical Research Journal Vol. 4 (2) 2006 pp. 9-13