Abstract

Comparison of a New Sensitive Skin Questionnaire and Baumann's Sensitive Skin Questionnaire in Chengdu, China

Mei Luan, Lin-Ming Fan, Heng Xie, Ru Dai, Yiming Li and Li Li

Background: Sensitive skin has become increasingly common in china but currently there are few widely recognized tools to investigate it.
Objective: To develop and validate a new localized sensitive skin questionnaire and compare its reliability and structure validity with Baumann's sensitive skin questionnaireBSS questionnairein Chengdu.
Method: We developed and examined a new sensitive skin questionnaireNSS questionnaireon healthy participants lived in Chengdu over 3 years. Totally 699 participants (231 men and 468 women) aged from 17 to 58 were included in this study. 100 participants were selected randomly to complete the NSS questionnaire and the BSS questionnaire for a second time after day 14. Cronbach's α coefficient and nonparametric spearman's correlation between day 1 and day 14 responses (testretest) were used to estimate the reliability of the questionnaire. Principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was used to measure structure validity of the questionnaire.
Result: A 14-item questionnaire was reduced to a more concise 12-item NSS questionnaire based on statistical results (low discriminatory value of certain items or poor sensitivity). 699 participants completed the NSS questionnaire and the BSS questionnaire, both of which showed acceptable internal consistency with the Cronbach's α of 0.802 and 0.823, respectively, and with nonparametric spearman's correlation of 0.906, and 0.796, separately. From PCA with varimax rotation, four main factors accounting for 60.780% of variance were extracted in the NSS questionnaire, while five main factors accounting for 52.248% of variance were extracted in the BSS questionnaire.
Conclusion: The NSS questionnaire is a reliable tool for investigating sensitive skin in Chengdu. And NSS questionnaire appeared to be more preferable than BSS questionnaire.