Dermatology trials still don’t reflect the ethnic, racial and gender makeup of the U.S. after more than 10 years of efforts to improve their diversity, a new study shows.

In an analysis of 392 randomized dermatology trials published in JAMA Dermatology, researchers from the University of Miami School of Medicine found that 38.1 percent of reporting trials from 2015 to 2020 had at least 20 percent nonWhite participants, the same figure seen in findings from an earlier analysis of dermatology trials between 2010 and 2015.

The trials, which covered the common conditions of alopecia areata, acne, atopic dermatitis, lichen planus, psoriasis and vitiligo, were deemed unrepresentative of race and ethnicity if they had fewer than 20 percent ethnically/racially diverse participants and unrepresentative of sex if they included fewer than 45 percent women, criteria in line with U.S. Census data, the researchers said.

Psoriasis trials were seen to be the least diverse, with only 12.1 percent of trials reporting at least 20 percent minority participants and only 29.5 percent of trials having at least 45 percent female participants.

Access the study findings here: https://bit.ly/3vw5Hfx.