The Frequency of Onychomycosis in Our Dermatology Clinic

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of the patients with onychomycosis who have admitted to our clinic. Materials and method: 771 patients aged 18 years and over presented to Dermatology Clinic of Meram Medical Faculty of Selcuk University between October 2004 – January 2005 were included into the study. Age, sex and education level of the patients were noted. Nail samples were taken for diagnosis in our laboratory. Direct microscopic examinaiton and culture were performed. Chi-square test and student t test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Onychomycosis was detected in 67 cases (8.7%), of whom 43 (64.1%) were male and 24(35.9%) were female. The presence of onychomycosis was found to correlate significantly with increasing age (p<0.05), male gender (p<0.05) and low education level (p<0.05). Conclusion: We detected the frequency of onychomycosis as 8.6% in our patients. We consider that occurance rate of onychomycosis may decrease in our region when informative educational measures related to with protection are performed.