The prevalence of self‐declared sensitive skin: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Sensitive skin is a common cutaneous condition that affects many people. The exact prevalence of sensitive skin remains unknown.We aim to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the published literatures to determine the global self-declared prevalence of sensitive skin.A systematic review of studies reporting the prevalence of sensitive skin was conducted searching electronic database of PubMed. Data were extracted and proportion meta-analyses were carried out to obtain the pooled prevalence.A total of 26 studies were included representing general population in 18 countries with 51 783 individuals. The pooled proportion of individuals with self-reported sensitive skin to some degrees was 71% [95% confidence interval (CI) 62%-81%] in the general population and 40% (95% CI 32%-47%) among individuals having very or moderately sensitive skin. Sensitive skin affected both women (45%, 95% CI 36%-55%) and men (33%, 95% CI 24%-42%), and women tended to be a risk factor with the development of sensitive skin compared to men (Risk Ratio=1.741, 95% CI 1.38-2.20). The corresponding estimates for prevalence were 38% (95% CI 25%-51%) among America, 35% (95% CI 32%-37%) among South America, 44% (95% CI 39%-50%) among Europe, and 31% (95% CI 16%-45%) among Asia, respectively. The pooled proportion of self-diagnosed facial sensitive skin to some degree was 64% (95% CI 49%-76%). For subjects responded as having very or moderately facial sensitive skin, the pooled proportion was 34% (95% CI 21%-46%).Our meta-analysis based on published data showed that the global prevalence of self-declared sensitive skin to some degrees was 71% in the adult population, and 40% among individuals having very or moderately sensitive skin. However, the prevalence of sensitive skin was dependent on the diagnostic method and the prevalence might be over-estimated in the questionnaire-based epidemiological studies.