Dermatoses vary from country to country and region to region. There are very few studies on epidemiological pattern of dermatosis. The pattern of  dermatoses serve as  an index of community development  and quality of  health care  provision .A hospital based descriptive  observational study was conducted in a tertiary  centre , which is  a teaching institution in the public  sector in central Kerala, among  adults  who attended the dermatology outpatient department for  a period of  six months. The participants in the study  were given a validated  semi structured interview schedule in which  sociodemographic variables such as age, sex, religion, educational qualification marital status, socioeconomic status, occupation  and   diagnosis   on dermatoses were captured .The data collected was then entered and analysed .Non-infectious  dermatoses  were more  compared to infectious  dermatoses . Among  infectious  dermatoses  fungal infections  were the commonest  and  among  non-infectious  dermatoses  eczemas were the  commonest .More than half of the patients belonged to the 18 to 36 category. Females outnumbered males in the total op attendees. More than ninety percent of study population were literate and majority were students and unemployed .Less than threefourths of the participants were married and two thirds were above the poverty line. Majority of them were Muslims and resided in villages .However educational status  and occupation did not have a significant  influence on the pattern of dermatoses. Early diagnosis and management can prevent the spread of infectious dermatoses thereby reduce the burden of dermatoses in the society

Keywords: Epidemiology pattern, Dermatoses.

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Dr Deepa Augustine

Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology, Government Medical College, Ernakulam, Kerala, India