Assessment

Normal skin
An assessment of a range of typical skin types is made by examining the person’s tendency to burn and tan, using the following guide (Table 3.1). This is useful to assess and convey when appraising sun/ultraviolet (UV) damage, risk prior to phototherapy, or when providing a guide when engaging in health education related to UV exposure risk awareness. Key considerations in a person’s skin typing include a person’s pigmentation and erythema history and their genetic history (Leach et al., 1996). Those with fair skin, which includes types 1 and 2, are more likely to develop skin cancer.

Table 3.1 Normal skin – skin typing.   Skin type Characteristics   I Always burns, never tans   II Sometimes burn, rarely tan   III Rarely burns, easily tans   IV Never burns, always tans   V Asian people   VI Afro-Caribbean/Black African people

An assessment approach has been adopted that is suitable for use by a wide range of dermatology professionals and primary care staff based on the framework provided by Leach et al. (1996) and Ashton and Leppard (2005) to aid diagnosis, although it will also enable the clinician to describe and assess more precisely the condition of the skin, to aid effective team working, by enabling the referer to describe the lesion or rash in the absence of an established diagnosis.