A new study shows that if you suffer from dark complexions or even have a skin color that is similar to that of a dark complexion, your doctor might not be aware of the problem.
Researchers found that a patient who has dark skin is more likely to be seen by a physician than a patient with light skin, but this difference is not statistically significant.
The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that only about 3 percent of patients with dark complexion were seen by their doctors.
The study also showed that patients who were referred to dermatologists were twice as likely to have a doctor ask them about their dark skin color as those who did not.
The researchers concluded that dark complexed patients may be less likely to get treated properly and that the issue could have a negative impact on their health.
The authors suggested that dark skin patients should not hesitate to seek treatment.
“Patients with dark skin are more likely than those with light-skinned skin to receive treatment at a dermatologist,” they wrote.
“A person’s skin color and its interaction with their genetic makeup may influence their overall health, including their risk of developing a skin cancer.
If a dark skin person does develop a skin condition, the physician will probably not know about it because the diagnosis may not be considered important enough for an appropriate follow-up evaluation.”
However, the study also pointed out that dark-complexioned patients may have different needs.
“In some cases, darker skin is associated with a more severe condition, which may have a higher prevalence,” the authors wrote.
“Thus, it may be more appropriate to provide care to darker skin patients.”
The study was carried out by researchers at the Department of Health at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Max Planck Institute for Human Genetics in Germany.
Dr. Yair Bekar, an ophthalmologist and clinical fellow at the Max Institute of Medical Research in Berlin, was the lead author of the study.
He told The Jerusalem Report that the researchers used a statistical model to assess the potential differences between the dark skin and light skin patients.
“It is important to remember that we’re looking at a patient’s general health and not the type of skin that they have,” he said.
“Our study is not saying that dark people are more prone to certain health problems.”
The researchers also noted that, “it’s not clear whether the skin color itself is a predictor of future health problems, such as cancer.”
In their study, the researchers focused on patients with mild to moderate dark complexional hyperpigmentation, an inherited condition that affects skin tone, pigmentation, and texture.
They also used data from the Israeli Health Ministry to compare the incidence of skin cancer among patients with darker complexioned skin versus those with lighter complexioned, brown, or fair skin.
The researchers found that darkcomplexioned skin patients were four times more likely (1.9 per 1,000 patients) to develop skin cancer than patients with lighter skin (0.8 per 1.000).
“I believe that darker skin may be a consequence of genetics and a predisposition to developing skin cancer, which is not the case with lighter-skinned people,” Bekkar said.
He added that the dark complexured patients in their study had significantly more skin cancer in general, indicating a more significant connection between the two.
“This is a case of a very common genetic trait,” Binkar told The Report.
“I don’t know of any case of an ethnic minority who is a darker skinned person.”
Bekar added that darker complexions were more likely in the population of people with milder skin conditions.
“People with mild skin are the ones with the lowest incidence of these conditions, so I think this finding might help us understand why darker skin tends to be more prevalent in the general population,” he added.
However, Bekr also warned that the study did not prove that darker-complexed patients had a genetic predisposition toward skin cancer or that dark patches could cause the disease.
“We need to be cautious when using this data because of the small sample size,” he told The Israel News Agency.
“The main thing is to get the diagnosis and treat the problem.”
The authors of the report did not have any additional comment to share.
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