A recent study found that approximately 10% of American teens use sunless tanning products. An article in this week’s Archives of Dermatology suggests promoting sunless tanning products to adult females may help reduce the risks of developing skin cancers and burns, now that ultraviolet radiation exposure has been upgraded to the highest cancer risk category.

The authors explain that exposure to ultraviolet radiation is the most common cause of avoidable skin cancer. If the sunbather’s aim is to get a nice tan, sunless skinning products might be a less hazardous way of doing so. The majority of products designed to create a fake tan contain dihydroxyacetone, which combines with the skin’s outer-layer amino acids and create a stain (tan).

Vilma E. Cokkinides, Ph.D., who works at the American Cancer Society, Atlanta, and team used a nationally representative telephone survey carried out in 2004 to assess the extent of sunless tanning product usage by American adolescents.

They gathered data on 1,600 eleven to eighteen year-olds who reported on whether they had used such products during the preceding 12 months. The investigators also compiled data on skin type, attitudes and perceptions of sunless tanning, other sun-related behaviors, and demographics.

10.8% of the surveyed adolescents said they had used a sunless tanning product during the previous 12 months. They found that a significant number of users were:

  • Female
  • Older adolescents
  • With parents or caregivers who also used sunless tanning products
  • Individuals who had positive beliefs/attitudes towards sunless tanning products

They also found that the usage of these products was linked to more indoor tanning bed use and a higher incidence of sunburn.

The authors wrote:

Our findings suggest that in adolescents, use of sunless tanning products appears independently correlated with risky UVR exposure behaviors (indoor tanning and having had sunburns in the previous summer) but not with routine use of sunscreen. Adolescents, therefore, must be educated about these products and the importance of avoiding indoor tanning and practicing sun-protective behaviors.

In a second study, also published in this week’s Archives of Dermatology, Sherry L. Pagoto, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, and team gathered 250 adult females who had been sunbathing at a beach to take part in a cancer prevention intervention study. 125 of them received information about skin cancer and sunless tanning.

The women were provided with written and spoken applications for sunless tanning products. They also received information about the advantages and benefits of tanning products versus UV exposure (sunbathing). All this took place in a tent on the beach.

The women had a UV-filtered photograph taken of their skin, which reveals skin damage the naked eye cannot detect. They were also given free samples of sunscreen and sunless tanning products.

The control group – the other 125 women – were given free cosmetic samples not linked to skin health. They were informed they would be contact later on for a follow-up.

After a follow-up two months later, the researchers found that those who had received the intervention said they had sunbathed less often, had fewer sunburns, and were using protective clothing more frequently than those in the control group. This change in behavior and difference between the two groups of women persisted a year later.

The authors wrote:

Encouraging sunbathers to switch to sunless tanning could have an important health impact, but sunless tanning has been considered a cosmetic more so than a health care tool. These findings have implications for public health and clinical efforts to prevent skin cancer. Promoting sunless tanning to sunbathers in the context of a skin cancer prevention public health message may be helpful in reducing sunbathing and sunburns and in promoting the use of protective clothing. Future research should determine how to further convince tanners to switch to sunless tanning.

“Use of Sunless Tanning Products Among US Adolescents Aged 11 to 18 Years”
Vilma E. Cokkinides, PhD; Priti Bandi, MS; Martin A. Weinstock, MD, PhD; Elizabeth Ward, PhD
Arch Dermatol. 2010;146(9):987-992. doi:10.1001/archdermatol.2010.220

“The Sunless Study – A Beach Randomized Trial of a Skin Cancer Prevention Intervention Promoting Sunless Tanning”
Sherry L. Pagoto, PhD; Kristin L. Schneider, PhD; Jessica Oleski, MA; Jamie S. Bodenlos, PhD; Yunsheng Ma, PhD
Arch Dermatol. 2010;146(9):979-984. doi:10.1001/archdermatol.2010.203

Written by Christian Nordqvist