• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.493-501
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• 2008

In this paper, a novel system is proposed to measure skin hydration using the susceptance method. This system largely consists of a low-voltage(${\pm}2.6$ V) driven circuit and minimized electrodes of size($5{\times}5mm^2$). To evaluate the accuracy of the novel system in measuring skin hydration, skin hydration values from 105 subjects are measured by the proposed system. The measurements are then compared to those obtained by the golden reference device based on the capacitance method in terms of Intraclass Correlation Coefficient(ICC) and correlation coefficient. All measurements are performed on 7 sites, which are forehead, Crow's foot, cheek, chin, volar forearm, dorsal forearm, and back of the hand, in a room where the temperature and humidity are maintained at an uniform level of $22{\pm}2^{\circ}C$ and $50{\pm}5%$, respectively. ICC values are above 0.9(p=0.001), signifying that the skin hydration values measured by the two methods show a good level of reliability. Correlation coefficient between the two methods is also 0.562(p=0.001). Based on these results, it is expected that the proposed system may be applicable in a variety of clinical or cosmetic areas.