Effect of Race on Lower Lip Hydration.

OBJECTIVE

To examine racial differences in lip hydration values- a retrospective analysis.

METHODS

Baseline lip hydration data collected as Corneometer® CM 825 measurements were culled from sixteen clinical studies conducted under a standard protocol. Data for the three largest subject groups were compared by ANOVA. Possible weather and age effects were also examined.

RESULTS

The groups ranked, in order of increasing lip hydration: Black < Caucasian < Hispanic. Two smaller groups not included in the ANOVA, Asian-American and Native-American, had baseline lip hydration values numerically comparable to the Hispanic group. The observed hydration trend was consistent with some literature reports of skin hydration differences due to race measured in other body areas.

LIMITATIONS: This work had two primary limitations: (1) the studies were conducted by four different clinical research laboratories at different times of the year; (2) the studies relied on the self-classification of race.

CONCLUSION

Given that there is lack of information in the literature on lip biophysical properties, the results of this analysis shed new light on and suggest that racial differences in lip hydration exist, as have been reported for other body areas.