Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Aug 5:8:e69026.
doi: 10.2196/69026.

Representation of Psoriasis on the Web for Patients With Skin of Color

Daniel Nguyen  1 , Van Le  1 , Derek Nguyen  2 , Vy Han  1
Affiliations

Representation of Psoriasis on the Web for Patients With Skin of Color

Daniel Nguyen et al. JMIR Dermatol. .

Abstract

This study analyzed over 2000 images of psoriasis across major web-based platforms and found a significant underrepresentation of darker skin tones, highlighting a critical gap in dermatologic representation that may contribute to misdiagnoses and health disparities among patients with skin of color.

Keywords: Fitzpatrick skin type; Instagram; internet; psoriasis; social media representation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Finney Rutten LJ, Blake KD, Greenberg-Worisek AJ, Allen SV, Moser RP, Hesse BW. Online health information seeking among US adults: measuring progress toward a Healthy People 2020 objective. Public Health Rep. 2019;134(6):617–625. doi: 10.1177/0033354919874074. doi. Medline. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jia X, Pang Y, Liu LS. Online health information seeking behavior: a systematic review. Healthcare (Basel) 2021 Dec 16;9(12):1740. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9121740. doi. Medline. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bu J, Ding R, Zhou L, Chen X, Shen E. Epidemiology of psoriasis and comorbid diseases: a narrative review. Front Immunol. 2022 Jun 10;13:880201. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.880201. doi. Medline. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yadav G, Yeung J, Miller-Monthrope Y, et al. Unmet need in people with psoriasis and skin of color in Canada and the United States. Dermatol Ther (Heidelb) 2022 Nov;12(11):2401–2413. doi: 10.1007/s13555-022-00811-0. doi. Medline. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alexis A, Woolery-Lloyd H, Andriessen A, Koo J, McMichael A, Han G. Evolving concepts in psoriasis: special considerations for patients with skin of color, skin barrier dysfunction, and the role of adjunctive skin care. J Drugs Dermatol. 2022 Oct 1;21(10):1054–1060. doi: 10.36849/JDD.7090. doi. Medline. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources