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Relevance of skin phototyping to a Korean population
Author(s) -
CHUNG J.H.,
KOH W.S.,
YOUN J.I.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
clinical and experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1365-2230
pISSN - 0307-6938
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2230.1994.tb01250.x
Subject(s) - phototype , dermatology , medicine , erythema , population , skin type , dark skin , environmental health
Summary We have determined skin phototype by a self‐reporting questionnaire proposed by Fitzpatrick in 128 Korean medical students. We also measured the minimal erythema dose (MED), minimal melanogenic dose and investigated their relationship to phototype. A questionnaire of skin phototypes revealed that 13.3% of the students are skin phototypes I and II. Based on MEDs, we demonstrated that 14.8% of the students fall into the UV‐sensitive group as defined by an MED of less than 40 mJ/cm 2 which is the upper range of MED of phototypes I and II in a white population. The skin phototypes did not show a positive correlation to MEDs and only 2.3% of students classified as skin phototypes I and II showed an MED below 40mJ/cm 2 . This study indicates that the skin phototyping method proposed by Fitzpatrick does not reliably predict UV‐sensitive individuals within the Korean population.