Drivers for Sun Protection in Black South Africans |
| |
| Authors: | Brian Diffey Melissa Wallace Preethi Mistri Bianca Wernecke Caradee Y Wright |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Dermatological Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK;2. Research Department, Cancer Association of South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa;3. Research Department, Cancer Association of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa;4. Environment and Health Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Johannesburg, South Africa;5. Environment and Health Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa |
| |
| Abstract: | Sun protection behavior studies are almost exclusively carried out in populations with fair skin for the obvious reason that people with unpigmented skin are more susceptible to the health impacts of excess solar ultraviolet radiation exposure. In a dataset of 1271 Black South Africans, we analyzed factors related to sun protection applied when spending time outdoors including awareness of skin cancer, gender, age and Living Standards Measure (LSM) where 1–4 equate to the lowest, 5–7 intermediate and 8–10 the highest LSM status. The most important driver for Black South Africans to use sun protection was whether they were aware of skin cancer (OR: 2.6 for those who were aware versus those who were not, P < 0.0001). Sunscreen was preferred by respondents in LSM 8-10 whereas people in the lowest group (LSM 1-4) favored shade, umbrellas and hats. One in two respondents claimed to use some form of sun protection, which appears to be higher than deeply pigmented populations in other countries. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
