Online Program

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Tuesday, January 7
Tue, Jan 7, 7:45 AM - 8:45 AM
Pacific D
Continental Breakfast & Poster Session II

Geographic Distribution, Seasonality, and Temporal Trend of Skin Bleaching Interest in the US: a surveillance proxy in the absence of national prevalence estimates (307806)

*Steven Anthony Lawrence, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 
Emma Benn, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 
Florentino Luciano Caetano Dos Santos, School of Engineering, Ecole polytechnique Federale de Lausanne 
Richa Deshpande, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 
Sharon Gordon, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 
Bian Liu, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 
Irmina Michalek, Faculty of Social Science Tampere University 

Keywords: Time Series Analysis, Skin Bleaching, Global Health, Populations of Color

Skin bleaching or lightening (SBL), is a global practice triggered historically by racism and classism. This ungendered behavior is currently fashionable, yet it can expose individuals to harmful chemicals like mercury, hydroquinone, and corticosteroids, yielding adverse outcomes ranging from skin atrophy to mercury poisoning. However, reliably estimating the national prevalence is challenging using traditional epidemiological methods. To fill this gap, we analyzed web searches of SBL using Google Trends data to examine the geographic distribution, seasonality, and temporal trend of this practice in the United States (US) during 2004-2019. Among 38 states with available data, those in the upper quartile of SBL (interest >72.4%) included California, District of Columbia, Texas, Nevada, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Mississippi, for which the non-white populations range from 44%-63%. We observed an increasing (positive) trend of approximately 2.7% per month, on average, in SBL searches over 15 years and summer to autumn peak. Our findings provide a first glimpse for policy and public health experts into the magnitude and increasing uptake of SBL in the US.