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Self‐reported skin colour and erythemal sensitivity vs. objectively measured constitutive skin colour in an A frican population with predominantly dark skin
Author(s) -
Wright Caradee Y.,
Wilkes Marcus,
Plessis Johan L.,
Reeder Anthony I.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
photodermatology, photoimmunology and photomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.736
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1600-0781
pISSN - 0905-4383
DOI - 10.1111/phpp.12191
Subject(s) - skin colour , sunburn , dark skin , human skin , skin color , dermatology , population , sensitive skin , skin thickness , skin type , medicine , biology , environmental health , genetics , artificial intelligence , computer science
Summary Background Skin colour is an important factor in skin‐related diseases. Accurate determination of skin colour is important for disease prevention and supporting healthy sun behaviour, yet such data are lacking for dark skin types. Methods Self‐perceived, natural skin colour and sun–skin reaction were compared with objectively measured skin colour among an A frican population with predominantly dark skin. Unexposed skin of 556 adults (70.1% B lack) was measured with a reflectance spectrophotometer to calculate an individual typology angle (° ITA ). Participants reported self‐perceived skin colour and erythemal sensitivity. Results There was a strong, positive monotonic correlation between self‐reported and measured skin colour (Spearman ρ = 0.6438, P < 0.001), but only a weak correlation between self‐reported erythemal sensitivity and measured skin colour (Spearman ρ = 0.2713, P < 0.001). Self‐report biases in underestimation and overestimation of skin colour were evident. Many participants with ‘dark brown’ and ‘black’ skin had difficulty in classifying erythemal sensitivity. Conclusions In A frica, self‐reported skin colour could potentially be used in lieu of spectrophotometer measurements, but options for questions on sunburn and tanning require suitable adjustment. Our study provides evidence of range in ° ITA values among residents in A frica and reinforces previous results that self‐report may be reliable for determining skin colour, but not erythemal sensitivity, for dark skin individuals.