Korean J Dermatol.  1996 Dec;34(6):893-897.

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

• Youn JI
• Oh JG
• Kim BK
• Chung JH
• Oh SJ
• Kim JJ
• Kang SH

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.

Keyword

Minirnal Erythema Dose; Skin Phototype

MeSH Terms

Adult*
Classification*
Erythema*
Humans
Male
Skin*
Students, Medical
Surveys and Questionnaires