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Socioeconomic factors influencing cosmetic usage patterns

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 28, pages 242–250 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

Despite daily exposure to chemicals in cosmetic products, there are few studies on the exposure levels to cosmetics particularly in Asians. We sought to investigate the usage pattern of cosmetics, including eye makeup products, fragrances, color makeups, and hair and nail care products, in Koreans. An online survey of 1,800 participants (908 males and 892 females, aged 15–59 years) from 5 Metropolitan cities (Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Daegu, and Busan) in Korea was conducted. For overall types of cosmetics, the proportion of users was 7.1% (range: 0.0–46.3%) in males and 30.7% (range: 1.0–82.8%) in females. The most prevalently used product was perfume (46.3%) in males and lipstick (82.8%) in females. In addition, the mean number of application for overall types of cosmetics was 22.7 (range: 4.6–49.4) times per month in male users and 24.8 (range: 4.2–62.0) in female users. The usage pattern was significantly altered according to demographic and socioeconomic factors, including age group, occupation, and income. This work estimated the prevalences and frequencies of use of a wide collection of cosmetics from a large number of Koreans and found that the usage pattern was significantly associated with demographic and socioeconomic factors.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant (14172MFDS975) from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea and conducted with online research companies, Macromill Embrain Company and IEC Korea Company. We thank all of our respondents for their participation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Hwaseong, Korea

    Gyeong-Hun Park

  2. Department of Dermatology, Dankook University Medical Center, Chungnam, Korea

    Chanhee Nam, Seungphil Hong, Byungcheol Park & Myung Hwa Kim

  3. Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Chungnam, Korea

    Hakrim Kim

  4. Department of Mathematics, Korea University, Seoul, Korea

    Taewon Lee

  5. Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Dankook University, Chungnam, Korea

    Kyubong Kim

  6. Department of Dermatology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Jong Hee Lee

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  1. Gyeong-Hun Park
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  2. Chanhee Nam
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  3. Seungphil Hong
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  4. Byungcheol Park
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Correspondence to Myung Hwa Kim.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology website

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Park, GH., Nam, C., Hong, S. et al. Socioeconomic factors influencing cosmetic usage patterns. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 28, 242–250 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2017.20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2017.20

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