Discovering Relationships between Skin Type and Life Style Using Data Mining Techniques: A Case Study of Korea

Abstract

With the growing interest in skincare and maintenance, there are increasing numbers of studies on the classification of skin type and the factors influencing each type. This study presents a novel methodology by using data mining, for the determination of the relationships between skin type, lifestyle, and patterns of cosmetic utilization. Eight skin-specific factors, which are moisture, sebum in U-zone (both cheeks), sebum in T-zone (forehead, nose, and chin), pore, melanin, wrinkle, acne, hemoglobin, were measured in 1,246 subjects living in South Korea, in conjunction with a questionnaire survey analyzing their lifestyles and pattern of cosmetic utilization. Using various multivariate statistical methods and data mining techniques, we classified the skin types based on the skin-specific values, determined the relationship between skin type and lifestyle, and accordingly sorted the subjects into clusters. Logistic regression analysis revealed gender-related differences in the skin; therefore, separate analyses were performed for males and females. Using the Gaussian Mixture Modeling (GMM) technique, we classified the subjects based on skin type (two male and four female). Using the ANOVA and decision tree techniques, we attempted to characterize the relationship between each skin type and the lifestyles of the subjects. Menstruation, eating habits, stress, and smoking were identified as the major factors affecting the skin.