{"title":"Basfar 2023 — Severity of acne, stress, and food habits of medical students at Taif University, Saudi Arabia","entity_type":"Source","slug":"basfar-2023-stress-acne-severity","canonical_url":"https://skinknowledgebase.com/sources/basfar-2023-stress-acne-severity","dates":{"date_modified":"2026-05-20","date_reviewed":"2026-05-20"},"mcp_eligible":true,"summary":"A 2023 cross-sectional study found an association between perceived stress and acne severity among medical students, without proving stress is the sole cause.","evidence_sources":[],"product_fact_sources":[],"related_entities":[{"title":"Does stress cause breakouts?","url":"https://skinknowledgebase.com/questions/does-stress-cause-breakouts"}],"body_sections":[{"heading":"Quick Summary","paragraphs":["Cross-sectional PubMed-indexed study used for cautious stress and acne-severity association context."]},{"heading":"What Studied","paragraphs":["Cross-sectional study of acne severity, perceived stress, and food habits among 585 undergraduate medical students."]},{"heading":"Main Findings","paragraphs":["Students with severe stress had higher mean acne severity scores, and perceived stress scores had a positive correlation with acne severity scores."]},{"heading":"Why It Matters","paragraphs":["It supports cautious wording that stress may be linked with acne severity for some people, while the study design cannot prove stress alone causes breakouts."]}],"source_type":"peer_reviewed","original_source_url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37303837/"}