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Protection from Sunburn with β‐Carotene—A Meta‐analysis †
Author(s) -
Köpcke Wolfgang,
Krutmann Jean
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-1097.2007.00253.x
Subject(s) - sunburn , meta analysis , medicine , carotene , web of science , dermatology , food science , biology
Nutritional protection against skin damage from sunlight is increasingly advocated to the general public, but its effectiveness is controversial. In this meta‐analysis, we have systematically reviewed the existing literature on human supplementation studies on dietary protection against sunburn by beta‐carotene. A review of literature until June 2007 was performed in PubMed, ISI Web of Science and EBM Cochrane library and identified a total of seven studies which evaluated the effectiveness of β ‐carotene in protection against sunburn. Data were abstracted from these studies by means of a standardized data collection protocol. The subsequent meta‐analysis showed that (1) β ‐carotene supplementation protects against sunburn and (2) the study duration had a significant influence on the effected size. Regression plot analysis revealed that protection required a minimum of 10 weeks of supplementation with a mean increase of the protective effect of 0.5 standard deviations with every additional month of supplementation. Thus, dietary supplementation of humans with β ‐carotene provides protection against sunburn in a time‐dependent manner.