Facial skin characteristics and concerns in Indonesia: A cross‐sectional observational study

Abstract

Background Facial skin characteristics and appearance vary according to ethnicity. While much of this knowledge is derived from the Caucasian population, lately there have been efforts to gain such understanding in various regions in Asia. In this paper, we have built an understanding of such features in Indonesia. In Indonesia, a section of females wears a traditional veil (hijab) to cover the scalp and part of face. The influence of the hijab on facial skin attributes was also investigated. Methods In a cross‐sectional observational study design involving 419 female volunteers in Jakarta, Indonesia, facial skin attributes (colour, radiance, hydration, trans‐epidermal water loss [TEWL], wrinkles, fine lines, pores, and sebum levels) and conditions (melasma, post‐inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), solar lentigines/ senile lentigines, seborrheic keratoses and acne) were assessed by trained operators and dermatologists using standard validated instruments and scales. Results With age, facial skin colour showed darkening in cheek; forehead on the other hand showed slight lightening. The skin evenness and radiance decreased, substantially. Aging attributes measured in terms of lines, wrinkles, and under‐eye dark circles showed deterioration with age; the decline was progressively faster than colour change. Facial image data analysis corroborated these findings. Skin hydration remained similar across the age groups even though the skin barrier function measured in terms of TEWL improved with age. Sebum levels in the skin were similar up to the age of 50 but declined in the next group of 50–60 year. Pore severity increased with age. Melasma, seborrheic keratosis and PIH showed a high prevalence (>∼50%) at the young age group (20–30 years), itself. Melasma prevalence attained 100% in the age group of 41–50 year and onwards, and its severity similarly showed a steady rise with age. PIH on the other hand showed a steady decline with age. Solar lentigines prevalence (∼30%) did not change much across age groups, and the severity scores were similar in age groups up to 50 year but increased substantially in 51–60‐year age groups. Seborrheic keratosis was similar (∼47%) in age groups up 20–40 year but steadily increased in upper age groups. Its severity was similar in the age groups of 20–30 year and 31–40 year but showed a two‐fold increase in subsequent age groups. Acne was 10% in the age group of 20–30 year and declined gradually to 0.7% in the 51–60‐year age group. Hijab wearers showed slight protection in skin colour darkening and improvement of evenness and radiance but were similar on aging (fine lines and wrinkles on crow's feet, under eye and peri‐oral areas) markers to non‐wearers. In general, in majority of age‐groups, hijab wearers showed a higher prevalence of melasma, solar/senile lentigines, seborrheic keratosis and PIH.

Skinly: A novel handheld IoT device for validating biophysical skin characteristics

“…Based on images generated by several thousand Skinly users at home this evenness algorithm determined a decrease in general evenness of cheek skin with rising age. These results are in line with data from the literature 40 . At home measurements with the Skinly device showed that Thiamidol treatment lightened skin tone and improved the evenness of cheek skin.…”

Diversity of Asian skin: A review on skin biophysical properties

“…also observed a reduced facial cheek elasticity and collagen with an increase in melanin content among elder Malaysian women. Similar evaluation by Du et al 77 . also reported that Indonesian women in Jakarta showed a decrease in skin elasticity (R2 and R7), TEWL and sebum (forehead) as well as a higher pore severity on the cheek, especially after 50 years.…”

“…also observed a reduced facial cheek elasticity and collagen with an increase in melanin content among elder Malaysian women. Similar evaluation by Du et al77 also reported that Indonesian women in Jakarta showed a decrease in skin elasticity (R2 and R7), TEWL and sebum (forehead) as well as a higher pore severity on the cheek, especially after 50 years. The same report also observed age-dependent changes on skin colour including an increase in lightness and a decrease in redness at forehead after 40 years, a decrease in lightness and an increase in yellowness at the cheek after 50 years.…”

“…However, Bandung women showed a higher pH (forehead and cheek), skin elasticity (forehead) and lightness (cheek) due to a higher altitude with less UV radiation. More recently, Du et al 77 observed photoprotection effect by hijab wearing among women in Jakarta where higher skin lightness and lower skin redness are found, especially at the forehead and among younger age groups.…”

Correlating facial skin parameters with age and gender in population of Shaanxi Province, China

“…Generally, skin smoothness is negatively correlated with age; however, our experimental results confirm that there is no significant correlation between this and age, which is the same as the known findings. 25 However, wrinkles show a significant increase, with a strong correlation with age, 26 suggesting that there is no significant correlation between the smoothness of the skin and the amount of wrinkles. In addition, we found that sebum content, the most important component in maintaining skin barrier function, decreased rapidly with age, with a decrease of more than 70% in the oldest ancestors compared to the youngest group (Figure 1), and there was a significant moderate intensity correlation between sebum content and age (Figure 2, R = −0.504), which is consistent with the results of several other studies.…”