Showing people pictures of how exposure to the sun has damaged their skin and encouraging them to use sunless tanning lotions appear to give many of them the nudge they need to steer clear of the sun, new research suggests.
California researchers found that people who watched a videotape about how sun exposure causes wrinkles and age spots and saw a UV photograph showing how the sun had already damaged their faces were more likely to increase their efforts to shield themselves from the sun than people who did not see such videos or photos.
And when the investigators coupled videos and UV photographs with free samples of sunless tanning lotion, participants were even more careful about protecting themselves, the authors report in Archives of Dermatology.
People get tans to look good, Dr. Heike Mahler, the study's author, explained, and if vanity is the reason they tan, it takes an appeal to vanity to convince them to stop.
The sunless tanning lotion likely helps because it gives the look of tanning without sun, which the videos and UV photographs say can actually hurt the tanner's appearance over time.
However, less than 40 per cent of the people given a sunless tanner used it. Dr. Mahler noted that many are hesitant to use the product because of fears it might turn their skin orange, or they consider it fakery.
Further efforts are needed to counteract those perceptions, she noted. "You don't need the sun to get a tan."
Dr. Mahler, who is based at the University of California in San Diego, and her colleagues note that the rate of skin cancer is increasing every year, and most cases can be prevented.
The best way to avoid skin cancer is to stay out of the sun between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., choose clothing that covers your skin, and apply sunscreen with a sun protection factor of at least 15.
However, research suggests that people respond better to warnings about the sun's effect on their appearance than warnings about how it can cause cancer.
To investigate further, Dr. Mahler and her team asked 106 college students to look at a UV photograph of their face and a video about sun's effect on aging, then gave 46 a free sample of sunless tanning lotion. Another 50 students received neither intervention.
The researchers found that people who got both lotion and information were most likely to use sun protection during the month after the study.