Digestery
Lifestyle practices › Red Light and Skin › Studies

Pooled review (meta-analysis)

Pooled review of 31 LED light studies: acne improved most; no wrinkle numbers given

Ngoc and colleagues · Photodermatology, photoimmunology & photomedicine · 2023

Original title: Utilization of light-emitting diodes for skin therapy: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to benefit

Acne results were strongest (SMD of -2.42 [-2.64, -2.15]). The authors say other LEDs improved skin rejuvenation, with I2 = 0% and 33%, but give no wrinkle numbers.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Pooled review (meta-analysis)
Who or what was studied
31 studies · People treated with LED light for skin problems, mostly acne
What was tested
Red, blue, yellow and near-infrared LED light compared across 31 studies
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed; funded by Korean government grants.
Journal
Photodermatology, photoimmunology & photomedicine, 2023
Source
PubMed record 36310510. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Pools the results of 31 studies.
  • •A pooled review is only as strong as the studies it pools.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a pooled review (meta-analysis), and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: wrinkles and skin aging

    6

    5 benefit, 1 mixed

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does red light therapy work for skin?”

Maybe a little; trials are small.

Confidence: low. Based on 7 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer
  • Quoted in “What we found”: The one pooled review, of 31 studies of LED light across many skin problems, said rejuvenation improved, but its abstract gives no wrinkle numbers.
  • Summed up in “What reviews found”: Pooled 31 studies of LED light across acne, psoriasis, cold sores, wounds and rejuvenation. Acne showed the clearest pooled effect. It said skin rejuvenation improved, with consistent results, but its abstract gives no wrinkle numbers.

Other reviews on this question

None among the papers we read.

See all 7 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 2 fields after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
Not yet. Required before search engines may list this page.

Spot an error? Email a flag with a link to your source, or use the form on the question page.