BACKGROUND: Limited information documents the prevention and treatment benefits of a hand care regimen using moisturizer in a controlled manner for employees in typical manufacturing situations. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to assess the effectiveness of a comprehensive skin care program including skin conditioning lotion in multiple manufacturing environments where employees are at high risk for skin disease. METHODS: A randomized trial test design with multiple measures, including skin bioengineering measurement techniques, visual grading, and self-assessment questionnaires, was used to broadly characterize skin condition. RESULTS: Comparison of the change in the skin condition of workers using the full hand care regimen with moisturizer versus a control group using a regimen without moisturizer demonstrated significant (p < .05) improvements in multiple measures after 1 to 2 weeks. Corneometer readings consistently showed significant improvement for employees using moisturizer, regardless of their work location. CONCLUSION: Improved skin condition resulted from the regular use of an effective skin conditioning hand moisturizer as part of a skin care regimen in work environments in which workers were prone to experiencing occupational irritant contact dermatitis.
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Arbogast et al. (2004) studied this question.