Background: The skin barrier serves as the primary defense against environmental factors. Mongolia’s extreme climate conditions may contribute to skin barrier impairment, increased trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL), and decreased skin moisture. Objective: To determine and compare skin moisture, TEWL, and skin pH levels in children. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in June 2023 with 104 relatively healthy children selected through random sampling. Skin physiological parameters, including skin moisture, skin pH and TEWL were measured following the EEMCO (European Group on Efficacy Measurement of Cosmetics and Other Topical Products) guidelines using the Multi Skin Test MC750 device (Courage+Khazaka Electronics, Germany) at nine different sites. Data analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel and Stata-14 software. Results: Among the participants, 51.9% (n=54) reported having dry skin (p<0.0001). Additionally, 64.5% (n=67) used moisturizers, but their usage did not show a statistically significant difference in skin moisture (p=0.929), skin pH (p=0.378), or TEWL (p=0.332). 14.42% (n=15) had extremely dry skin, while 85.58% (n=89) had dry skin, with no participants falling within the normal skin moisture range. TEWL showed a moderate inverse correlation with age (r=-0.331, p=0.0006). When analyzed by age groups, skin moisture (p=0.023) and TEWL (p=0.038) differed significantly between groups. Conclusion Skin moisture and TEWL significantly differ across age groups. Given that all participants had dry skin, moisturization is crucial. Mongolia’s extreme climate is likely a key contributing factor to childhood skin dryness.

As specified in the main textbook of traditional Mongolian medicine, when diagnosing a disease, first of all, the disease is analyzed according to the type and classification of the disease, and then the root cause of the disease is known. Although there are numerous diseases, it is possible to distinguish exactly which disease it is from other diseases by knowing its root. The ancestors of Mongolians have created and developed dozens of works of materialistic and intellectual culture related to nomadic civilization. In these works, the medical art, treatment methods, and classification of diseases created during the historical development of fighting diseases have a special place. In particular, the very ancient forms of cognition of diseases, their causes, conditions, diagnosis, and treatment methods have been deeply developed from the point of view of mythology, religion, as well as philosophical and scientific views, from the level of simple consciousness to evidence-based knowledge. Within the framework of this knowledge, skin diseases, which have not been widely studied and are not generally used in practice, occupy an important place. There are 18 diseases in the classification of skin diseases, and if we divide them into 4 in detail, a total of 24 diseases are identified. This classification should be called the general classification of skin diseases due to the fact that in addition to the general classification of skin diseases, many others related to skin diseases are mentioned in other categories of diseases in the “Four Medical Tantras”. The results of this study show that these diseases should be integrated and used as a special category of skin diseases.