The DOI matches its Crossref record; 218 of the 226 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Obesity and the skin: Skin physiology and skin manifestations of obesity
Abstract
Unlabelled Obesity is widely recognized as an epidemic in the Western world; however, the impact of obesity on the skin has received minimal attention. The purpose of this article is to highlight the association between obesity and dermatologic conditions. We review the impact of obesity on the skin, including skin physiology, skin manifestations of obesity, and dermatologic diseases aggravated by obesity. Obesity is responsible for changes in skin barrier function, sebaceous glands and sebum production, sweat glands, lymphatics, collagen structure and function, wound healing, microcirculation and macrocirculation, and subcutaneous fat. Moreover, obesity is implicated in a wide spectrum of dermatologic diseases, including acanthosis nigricans, acrochordons, keratosis pilaris, hyperandrogenism and hirsutism, striae distensae, adiposis dolorosa, and fat redistribution, lymphedema, chronic venous insufficiency, plantar hyperkeratosis, cellulitis, skin infections, hidradenitis suppurativa, psoriasis, insulin resistance syndrome, and tophaceous gout. We review the clinical features, evidence for association with obesity, and management of these various dermatoses and highlight the profound impact of obesity in clinical dermatology.Learning objective After completing this learning activity, participants should be aware of obesity-associated changes in skin physiology, skin manifestations of obesity, and dermatologic diseases aggravated by obesity, and be able to formulate a pathophysiology-based treatment strategy for obesity-associated dermatoses.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Obesity alters several key dermal parameters: increased dermal thickness, greater trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL), reduced capillary density, and increased depth of arteries such as the radial artery.”
From PPG-Based Heart Rate Accuracy in Hispanic Adults with Fitzpatrick III–V Skin Tones: An Evaluation of Body Composition and Skin-Tone Effects (2026) · cites this paper as [17]
In the citing paper
“Physiological changes that occur in individuals with obesity may increase the measurement uncertainties, and optical means for monitoring blood pressure will have to account for obesity-related changes to the skin optical properties12 and increased subcutaneous tissue thickness.”
From Synthetic photoplethysmography (PPG) of the radial artery through parallelized Monte Carlo and its correlation to body mass index (BMI) (2021) · cites this paper as [12]
Citations
Cites
Grundy, S. M., Bilheimer, D. W., Chait, A., Clark, L. T., Denke, M. A., Havel, R. J., Hazzard, W. R., Hulley, S. B., Hunninghake, D. B., Kreisberg, R. A., et al. (1993) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.269.23.3015 · Cited by 27,944
Expert Panel on Detection, E. (2001) · JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association · doi:10.1001/jama.285.19.2486 · Cited by 26,011
Reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin
(2002) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmoa012512 · Cited by 19,011
Grundy, S. M., Brewer, H. B., Cleeman, J. I., Smith, S. C., & Lenfant, C. (2004) · Circulation · doi:10.1161/01.cir.0000111245.75752.c6 · Cited by 5,982
Leptin and the regulation of body weight in mammals
Friedman, J. M., & Halaas, J. L. (1998) · Nature · doi:10.1038/27376 · Cited by 5,405
Congenital leptin deficiency is associated with severe early-onset obesity in humans
Montague, C. T., Farooqi, I. S., Whitehead, J. P., Soos, M. A., Rau, H., Wareham, N. J., Sewter, C. P., Digby, J. E., Mohammed, S. N., Hurst, J. A., et al. (1997) · Nature · doi:10.1038/43185 · Cited by 2,936
Prevalence of obesity in the United States, 2009-2010.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K., & Flegal, K. M. (2012) · PubMed · Cited by 2,057
Effects of Recombinant Leptin Therapy in a Child with Congenital Leptin Deficiency
Farooqi, I. S., Jebb, S. A., Langmack, G., Lawrence, E., Cheetham, C. H., Prentice, A. M., Hughes, I. A., McCamish, M. A., & O'Rahilly, S. (1999) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejm199909163411204 · Cited by 1,998
Clinical Spectrum of Obesity and Mutations in the Melanocortin 4 Receptor Gene
Farooqi, I. S., Keogh, J. M., Yeo, G. S. H., Lank, E. J., Cheetham, T., & O'Rahilly, S. (2003) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmoa022050 · Cited by 1,778
Krude, H., Biebermann, H., Luck, W., Horn, R., Brabant, G. E., & Grüters, A. (1998) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/509 · Cited by 1,769
Flagged first, then by citations
8 of the 226 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Commons, 2001, Large-volume liposuction: a review of 631 consecutive cases over 12 years, Plast Reconstr Surg, 108, 1753, 10.1097/00006534-200111000-00051 · DOI
- Giese, 2001, Improvements in cardiovascular risk profile with large-volume liposuction: a pilot study, Plast Reconstr Surg, 108, 510, 10.1097/00006534-200108000-00036 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Human skin wounds: A major and snowballing threat to public health and the economy
Sen, C. K., Gordillo, G. M., Roy, S., Kirsner, R., Lambert, L., Hunt, T. K., Gottrup, F., Gurtner, G. C., & Longaker, M. T. (2009) · Wound Repair and Regeneration · doi:10.1111/j.1524-475x.2009.00543.x · Cited by 2,965
“Obesity is responsible for changes in skin barrier function, sebaceous glands and sebum production, sweat glands, lymphatics, collagen structure and function, wound healing, microcirculation and macrocirculation, and subcutaneous fat.(78) Obesity has a clear but not yet precisely defined effect on the immune response…”
BackgroundKumar, S., & Kelly, A. S. (2017) · Mayo Clinic Proceedings · doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.09.017 · Cited by 1,421
“Other skin abnormalities include intertrigo, hidradenitis suppurativa, furunculosis, and stretch marks.(101)”
BackgroundObesity: Risk factors, complications, and strategies for sustainable long‐term weight management
Fruh, S. M. (2017) · Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners · doi:10.1002/2327-6924.12510 · Cited by 709
Obesity and the risk and outcome of infection
Huttunen, R., & Syrjänen, J. (2012) · International Journal of Obesity · doi:10.1038/ijo.2012.62 · Cited by 595
The relationship between skin function, barrier properties, and body‐dependent factors
Dąbrowska, A., Spano, F., Derler, S., Adlhart, C., Spencer, N. D., & Rossi, R. M. (2017) · Skin Research and Technology · doi:10.1111/srt.12424 · Cited by 520
Metadata
- Authors
- Yosipovitch, G., DeVore, A., & Dawn, A.
- Affiliations
- Wake Forest University Health Sciences (US)
- Corresponding author
- Yosipovitch, Gil
- ORCID
- Yosipovitch, Gil
- Venue
- Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-06
- Volume
- 56
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 901-916
- ISSN
- 0190-9622 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2009476361
- Semantic Scholar
- b5f800df723da429743687ae8b6b272a5e4772cb
- Cited by
- 524
- References
- 226
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 36 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 4.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Dermatology › Skin Diseases and Diabetes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Dermatology › Dermatology and Skin Diseases
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity and Health Practices
- Keywords
- obesity, skin barrier function, sebum production, sweat glands, collagen, wound healing, subcutaneous adipose tissue, acanthosis nigricans, acrochordons, keratosis pilaris, hyperandrogenism, hirsutism, striae, adiposis dolorosa, lymphedema, chronic venous insufficiency, plantar hyperkeratosis, cellulitis, skin infections, hidradenitis suppurativa, psoriasis, metabolic syndrome, tophaceous gout
- MeSH terms
- Acanthosis Nigricans, Adiposis Dolorosa, Animals, Chronic Disease, Elasticity, Humans, Insulin Resistance, Intertrigo, Lymphedema, Microcirculation, Obesity, Pro-Opiomelanocortin, Psoriasis, Sebaceous Glands, Skin Diseases, Venous Insufficiency, Comorbidity, Hidradenitis Suppurativa, Fasciitis, Necrotizing
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
