TOPLINE

More than 30% of US adults in a national survey intentionally tanned outdoors, increasing their risk for sunburn, with findings that have implications for skin cancer prevention measures.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers analyzed data from 31,615 US adults (mean age, 48.3 years; 51.4% women) who participated in the 2024 National Health Interview Survey.
• Of all participants, 61.6% were non-Hispanic White, 11.5% non-Hispanic Black, 17.8% Hispanic, and 1.3% were American Indian individuals.
• Participants were asked how often they tried to get sun for the purpose of developing a tan (always, most of the time, sometimes, rarely, or never) and whether they had experienced sunburn in the past 12 months.
• The primary outcome, intentional outdoor tanning prevalence, was defined as responding always, most of the time, sometimes, or rarely to the tanning question; the secondary outcome was sunburn prevalence.

TAKEAWAY

• Overall, 30.2% of participants reported intentional outdoor tanning, with higher prevalence among women than among men (35.6% vs 26.6%; P < .001).
• Intentional outdoor tanning was most common among women aged 18-29 years (48.1%), women who were non-Hispanic White (41.3%), women who met aerobic and strength activity guidelines (39.5%), and those who said they engaged in heavy or binge drinking (47.2%).
• The highest prevalence in men was in those aged 18-29 years (29.9%), men who were non-Hispanic White (30.5%), those who were sun sensitive (28.7%), those who met both physical activity guidelines (32.2%), and those who said they engaged in heavy or binge drinking (31.2%).
• Sunburn prevalence was significantly higher among adults who reported intentional outdoor tanning than among those who did not (49.9% vs 28.3%; P < .001).

IN PRACTICE

“More than one third of women and approximately one fourth of men in the US engage in intentional outdoor tanning,” the authors of the study wrote. “Those who engage in intentional outdoor tanning are likely to experience sunburn, thus increasing their risk of skin cancer. These findings support the inclusion of strategies to reduce intentional outdoor tanning in future skin cancer prevention research and interventions,” they added.

SOURCE

The study was led by Dawn M. Holman, MPH, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, CDC, Atlanta, and was published online on July 22 in JAMA Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS

This was a cross-sectional study design with self-reported data. The outdoor tanning measure did not capture contextual details, and the dichotomized definition lacked details on tanning frequency.

DISCLOSURES

The authors did not report any funding information or conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.