Magnitude and Associated Factors of Pityriasis Versicolor Among Patients Attending Dermatologic Clinic in Ayder Teaching and Referral Hospital, Mekelle, Tigray, North Ethiopia

Background: Pityriasis versicolor is a chronic and recurrent superficial mycosis that is caused by yeast of Malassezia species genus comensal of the horny layer of the skin. The magnitude of disease is varying in the world with a rate of 5-50% and persistent hypopigmentation may remain after treatment course causing significant emotional distress, particularly in adolescents and social problem. However, less known about risk factors of a disease in Ethiopia Objectives: To assess the magnitude and associated factors of Pityriasis versicolor among patients attending Dermatologic clinic in Ayder Referral and teaching Hospital from June to August, 2014. Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted at Ayder Referral Hospital on 406 patients, who attended dermatologic clinic from June to August, 2014. Systematic simple random sampling was used and a total of 406 participants available during data collection period were included in the study. Data, which was collected by interview and physical examination, was entered, cleaned, coded and analyzed by using SPSS version 20. Bi-variate and multivariable logistic regression was conducted to examine factors associated with occurrence of Pityriasis versicolor; Odds ratio with their 95% confidence interval and corresponding p-value were reported. Result: From a total of 406 Study Participants 100 (24.6%) were diseased with pityriasis versicolor and 306 (75.4%) were not diseased. About 196(48.3%) of patients were females and 210(51.7%) were males. Among the total study subjects 302(74.4%) of them resided in urban areas while the rest 104(25.6%) live in the rural areas. Out of the total 406 study participants 32(7.9%) had habit of doing exercise regularly, 21(5.2%) had history of excessive sweating, 67(16.5%) wore occlusive dressing. Excessive sweating (AOR=10.6, 95% CI= 2.341-47.999). , practicing exercise regularly (AOR=4.52, 95%CI=1.604-12.708), wearing occlusive dressing (AOR=15.78, 95% CI=7.603-32.745), secondary level of education (AOR=4.03, 95% CI=1.18-13.747) and diploma and above level of education (AOR=3.586, 95% CI=0.948-13.565) were found to be significantly associated with PV. Conclusion: The magnitude of Pityriasis versicolor was 24.6% in this study which was high, so it should be noted as an important public health problem in the community. Keywords: Pityriasis versicolor, magnitude, associated factors, Ethiopia