Vitiligo skin types in Koreans

Abstract

There is uncertainty and controversy about the relationship between skin type and development of vitiligo. The present study was undertaken to study whether vitiligo patients have a different skin type than the control group. We investigated the skin types of 201 Korean vitiligo patients and 70 healthy Korean volunteers. Skin type was determined by the skin phototyping method proposed by Fitzpatrick. Compared to normal controls, skin type II was significantly less frequent and skin type V was quite common in the vitiligo group. These results suggest that people with dark skin have a higher probability of developing vitiligo than people with light skin.