Skin Elasticity of the Face: Demographic and Lifestyle Intricacies.

Background: The assessment of improvements in facial skin features using instrumental measurements is often challenging. This is also true for the assessment of signs of ageing within various populations. For the purpose of clinical studies, there is a need to document the values that could be generated using such instrumental measurement. This paper, thus, investigates the effect of demographic profile and lifestyle on facial elasticity using an elasticity meter on a diverse and multiethnic population.

Materials and methods: This one-day clinical study involved the participation of 300 participants for demographic profiling and self-reported lifestyle (after consenting). Skin elasticity measurements were taken using an elasticity meter in controlled conditions. Generated data included both absolute and relative parameters. These were tabulated using simple descriptive statistics, by demographic profile and lifestyle. Inferential statistical analyses were applied to assess for significant differences among groups.

Results: Benchmark instrumental values are reported in the form of central tendencies and dispersions. Gender, age, phototype, ethnicity, occupation and transportation methods revealed salient differences in terms of skin elasticity. On the other hand, only non-significant trends were noted for other demographic characteristics and lifestyle behaviours investigated.

Conclusion: The findings propose some benchmark values that could be used to inform the design of future clinical trials. This includes sample size calculations, taking into consideration the panels being studied. There is a need to take into consideration the demographic and lifestyle background of the proposed panel when designing a study aimed at improving facial skin ageing features. These factors may have an influence on the response, thus confounding the study results and conclusions. Future longitudinal studies looking at long-term behavioural influences are required to better understand the dynamics of skin elasticity.