Authors’ reply to Del Giudice: the global prevalence and correlates of skin bleaching

Abstract

I read the meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis of skin bleaching by Sagoe et al with great interest.1 The authors included 68 studies, resulting in publications ranging from 1972 to 2017. I am surprised because we conducted one of the first epidemiological studies on this problem which was published in this review in 2002,2 and this article is lacking in the meta-analysis. Our study responds to the inclusion criteria of their study. From 1992 to 1993, we conducted an epidemiologic and clinical study in Dakar, Senegal. Women were questioned about the use of skin-lightening creams and examined for potential adverse skin reactions; 685 Senegalese women participated in the study; 26% were using skin-lightening creams, and 36% had used them at some times