Trends in Office Visits for the Five Most Common Skin Diseases in the United States

Objective: We sought to determine the outpatient visit rates for the five most common skin conditions among dermatologists and non-dermatologists.

Methods: We conducted a population-based, cross-sectional analysis using the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey between 2007 and 2016, the most recent years available.

Results: The five most common skin diagnoses among all medical specialties were contact dermatitis, acne vulgaris, actinic keratosis, benign neoplasm of the skin, and epidermoid cyst, respectively. Actinic keratosis followed by acne vulgaris and benign neoplasm of skin were the three most common visit diagnoses among dermatologists, whereas contact dermatitis, acne vulgaris, and epidermoid cyst were the most common among non-dermatologists. Overall, visits for the five most common skin conditions seen by dermatologists and non-dermatologists remained constant over the study interval.

Limitations: Misclassification bias could be impacting the results of this study. Additionally, the NAMCS samples only non-hospital based outpatient clinicians, and thus cannot describe hospital-based outpatient visits or inpatient hospital care.

Conclusion: Visits for contact dermatitis, acne, actinic keratosis, benign neoplasm of the skin, and epidermoid cysts have remained constant over the last ten years. These conditions represent the most common diagnoses of the skin at both dermatologists and non-dermatologists outpatient visits. Non-dermatologists continue to see almost half of visits for the five most common skin diagnoses. Patients are often referred from the primary care setting for growths of skin and skin lesions; thus, it is not surprising that actinic keratosis has remained the most common diagnosis among dermatologist and benign neoplasm the third most common dermatologic diagnosis.