Mixed Race Studies

Self-reported pigmentary phenotypes and race are significant but incomplete predictors of Fitzpatrick skin phototype in an ethnically diverse population

Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
Available online: 2014-06-11
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaad.2014.05.023

Steven Y. He, BS
Department of Dermatology
University of California, San Francisco

Charles E. McCulloch, PhD
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
University of California, San Francisco

W. John Boscardin, PhD
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Department of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco

Mary-Margaret Chren, MD
Department of Dermatology
University of California, San Francisco

Eleni Linos, MD, MPH, DrPH
Department of Dermatology
University of California, San Francisco

Sarah T. Arron, MD, PhD
Department of Dermatology
University of California, San Francisco

Background

Fitzpatrick skin phototype (FSPT) is the most common method used to assess sunburn risk and is an independent predictor of skin cancer risk. Because of a conventional assumption that FSPT is predictable based on pigmentary phenotypes, physicians frequently estimate FSPT based on patient appearance.

Objective

We sought to determine the degree to which self-reported race and pigmentary phenotypes are predictive of FSPT in a large, ethnically diverse population.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey collected responses from 3386 individuals regarding self-reported FSPT, pigmentary phenotypes, race, age, and sex. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine variables that significantly predict FSPT.

Results

Race, sex, skin color, eye color, and hair color are significant but weak independent predictors of FSPT (P < .0001). A multivariate model constructed using all independent predictors of FSPT only accurately predicted FSPT to within 1 point on the Fitzpatrick scale with 92% accuracy (weighted kappa statistic 0.53).

Limitations

Our study enriched for responses from ethnic minorities and does not fully represent the demographics of the US population.

Conclusions

Patient self-reported race and pigmentary phenotypes are inaccurate predictors of sun sensitivity as defined by FSPT. There are limitations to using patient-reported race and appearance in predicting individual sunburn risk.

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Still Jewish: A History of Women and Intermarriage in America

New York University Press
February 2009
325 pages
Cloth ISBN: 9780814757307
Paper ISBN: 9780814764343

Keren R. McGinity, Author-Educator
Love & Tradition: intermarriage insights for a Jewish future

Over the last century, American Jews married outside their religion at increasing rates. By closely examining the intersection of intermarriage and gender across the twentieth century, Keren R. McGinity describes the lives of Jewish women who intermarried while placing their decisions in historical context. The first comprehensive history of these intermarried women, Still Jewish is a multigenerational study combining in-depth personal interviews and an astute analysis of how interfaith relationships and intermarriage were portrayed in the mass media, advice manuals, and religious community-generated literature.

Still Jewish dismantles assumptions that once a Jew intermarries, she becomes fully assimilated into the majority Christian population, religion, and culture. Rather than becoming “lost” to the Jewish community, women who intermarried later in the century were more likely to raise their children with strong ties to Judaism than women who intermarried earlier in the century. Bringing perennially controversial questions of Jewish identity, continuity, and survival to the forefront of the discussion, Still Jewish addresses topics of great resonance in a diverse America.