Assessing therapeutic effectiveness of scalp treatments for dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis, part 2: the impact of gender and ethnicity on efficacy.

Paper Abstract

Dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis (D/SD) are common and troublesome scalp conditions that affect individuals independent of gender or ethnicity.

To evaluate whether population gender or ethnic origins impact the magnitude of anti-dandruff therapeutic benefit obtained from use of a potentiated zinc pyrithione shampoo treatment.

A retrospective evaluation of anti-dandruff clinical data covering a single-product technology was conducted to assess whether statistically meaningful differences were observed for gender or ethnic sub-populations. An analysis of covariance was performed on the pooled subject-level data.

Meta-analysis of clinical data involving 1114 subjects from seven trials demonstrated the lack of statistically significant impact of gender on flaking or selected biomarker measures. Similarly, a smaller population chosen to assess ethnicity demonstrated the lack of differences between Asian and Caucasian clinical sub-population responses (flaking severity).

Through the use of both expert symptom grading and objective biomarker assessments, therapeutic efficacy of a potentiated zinc pyrithione shampoo was found to be independent of gender and ethnicity, being consistent with the lack of functional differences in skin from these populations.