Abstract
One in five Americans will develop skin cancer before the age of 70. Consistent sunscreen use can help decrease the prevalence of this. This study assesses the general knowledge of United States citizens on sunscreen use, frequency of usage, common behaviors of sunscreen usage, and use of sunscreen based on knowledge of sun protection. We created a 14-question anonymous web-based survey that was distributed amongst a third-party polling service. The polling service conducted random recruitment of participants based on inclusion criteria. Results from 200 participants were then analyzed using JMP Pro 16 for the Mac [11]. Fishers two tailed exact test was used along with Wilcoxon’s rank- sum test. The results of the survey found that 11% of the participants report not wearing sunscreen at all, 13.5% wear sunscreen daily, the most common reason for sunscreen use was avoidance of sunburns (50%, n = 100), most people learn about the importance of sunscreen from their parents/family members (46.5%, n = 93), and 66.5% of the participants feel that sunscreen education should be included in schools (n = 133). Furthermore, the participants in the lowest income bracket were less likely to apply sunscreen. In conclusion, our survey found that most US residents are aware about sunscreen’s role in protection from UV rays, however, most citizens continue to use it inconsistently.
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MP, TS, and LG procured the data. RM did the data analysis. MP, AS, and RM drafted the initial manuscript. All authors provided edits and approved the final manuscript. LG supervised the conduct of the research.
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The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. The manuscript is original, and has not previously been presented, nor currently under revision with, another journal.
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This study (# 2022-580) was considered exempt by our institutional review board manager HCA Centralized Algorithms for Research Rules on IRB Exemptions (CARRIE).
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Patlola, M., Shah, A.A., Stead, T. et al. Sunscreen use amongst US adults: a national survey. Arch Dermatol Res 315, 2137–2138 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-023-02603-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-023-02603-8