More skin, more sun, more tan, more melanoma

Although personal melanoma risk factors are well established, the contribution of socioeconomic factors, including clothing styles, social norms, medical paradigms, perceptions of tanned skin, economic trends, and travel patterns, to melanoma incidence has not been fully explored. We analyzed artwor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of public health (1971) 2014-11, Vol.104 (11), p.e92-e99
Main Authors: Chang, Caroline, Murzaku, Era Caterina, Penn, Lauren, Abbasi, Naheed R, Davis, Paula D, Berwick, Marianne, Polsky, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
20th century
Adolescent
Adult
Cancer
Cancer therapies
Clothing - history
Culture
Disease
Economic trends
Female
Health care
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
History
History, 20th Century
Humans
Incidence
Leisure
Male
Media
Melanoma
Melanoma - epidemiology
Melanoma - etiology
Mortality
Nobel prizes
Online Framing Health Matters
Outdoor activities
Outdoors
Paradigms
Prevention
Public health
Skin
Skin - radiation effects
Skin cancer
Social norms
Social Science
Socioeconomic Factors
Sun
Sunbathing - history
Sunbathing - statistics & numerical data
Sunburn & sun tanning
Sunscreen
Suntan
Tuberculosis
Ultraviolet radiation
United States
Working hours
Young Adult
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Summary:Although personal melanoma risk factors are well established, the contribution of socioeconomic factors, including clothing styles, social norms, medical paradigms, perceptions of tanned skin, economic trends, and travel patterns, to melanoma incidence has not been fully explored. We analyzed artwork, advertisements, fashion trends, and data regarding leisure-time activities to estimate historical changes in UV skin exposure. We used data from national cancer registries to compare melanoma incidence rates with estimated skin exposure and found that they rose in parallel. Although firm conclusions about melanoma causation cannot be made in an analysis such as this, we provide a cross-disciplinary, historical framework in which to consider public health and educational measures that may ultimately help reverse melanoma incidence trends.
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302185