United States: Two new surveys suggest a troubling trend: Surprisingly, it seems adults are not as disciplined as before in employing the sun protection relevant to decking skin-related defects.
Details of the findings
A survey this month on over 1000 people by the American Academy of Dermatology found that 28 percent of adults aged 18-26 years said that a suntan that can damage the skin was not linked to skin cancer, the New York Times said.
Of the respondents, 37 percent answered that they wore their sunscreen each time other people complained to them for not wearing their sunscreens.
Survey results
Another survey, which was conducted in July by Orlando Health Cancer Institute revealed that 14 percent of young adults below the age of 35 years believed that wearing off sunscreen every day was dangerous to them than experiencing sunburn.
While the surveys are not large enough to inherently generalize trends throughout young adulthood, the doctors interviewed for this piece verified with the Executive that, anecdotally, they, too, have seen these deficiencies in knowledge and these risky patterns emerge in younger clients.
Experts commented that this issue is not entirely unique to the current generation of young adults, as There’s a component of young people just being young people,” said Dr. Melissa Shive, a dermatologist at UCI Health in Irvine, Calif, the New York Times reported.
A cross-sectional study of young adults during the period of 1986-1996 stated that guys from the age of 18 to 24 years were more likely to visit tanning booths and get sunburns.
If young adults do not know what sun damage appears to be and how one can protect themselves from it? Such question are often being asked by young adults said Dr Shive.
According to the words of Dr. Heather Rogers, the clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Washington, her youthful clients have increased the attendance of tanning beds. In a nutshell, taking an exposure on ultraviolet rays either from the tanning beds or the normal sun exposes the skin and brings about skin cancer which is fatal.
Furthermore, the respondents of the recent surveys, the older generations in particular, also lacked a flawless understanding of sun protection. For instance, data from A. A. D. showed that while only seventeen percent of the millennials were aware that tanning caused skin cancer, the rest had no inkling of the fact.
Nevertheless, more in sum, the participant of Gen. Y, especially those born after 1997 or Gen. Z trusted more in the myths pertaining to sun safety.