Classification of the Skin Phototype According to UVB Induced Minimal Erythema Dose in Young Korean Adults / 대한피부과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: We predicted that the self-reporting questionnaire proposed by Fitzpatrick might not be appropriate for classifying the skin phototype in Korean people. OBJECTIVE: We classified the skin phototypes in Korean people by measuring the minimal erythema dose (MED) of UVB on the basis of MEDs of skin type proposed by Pathak and Fitzpatrick. METHODS: Two hundred and eighty-four male Korean medical students participated in this study. We irradiated UVB with Waldmann UV 800 and measured MEDs after 24 hours. RESULTS: The mean MED was 70.1+/-21.3 mJ/cm2. Most of the MEDs were 70, 60, 50 mJ/cm2 in the order of frequency. On the basis of the skin type proposed by Pathak and Fitzpatrick, the most frequent phototype was the skin type V(56.3%) by MED. 20.8% and 13.8% of the subjects corresponded to the skin types UV and III, respectively. 9.1% of the subjects fell into the UV sensitive group, skin type l and II. CONCLUSION: Using these results as groundwork, simple and precisely applicable classification of skin phototype in Korean people needs to be established.