Welcome back to my
general dermatology blog. I have written in past blog posts about skin care and the
benefits of regular sunscreen usage, so a recent article on new sunscreen
research caught my eye. According to findings published in the September 4th
issue of JAMADermatology, physicians discussed sunscreen rates with patients during
less than 1% of visits.
Researchers at the
University of Wake Forest conducted their study on trends in sunscreen recommendations
among physicians after recognizing that sunscreen might not be recommended as
often as guidelines dictate. They worked with the National Ambulatory Medical
Care Survey to identify patient visits to non-federal outpatient physician
offices at American ambulatory care practices during which the physician
recommended sunscreen. The data covered patient visits between January 1, 1989
and December 26, 2010.
The National Ambulatory
Medical Care Survey reported an estimated 18.30 billion patient visits
nationwide during the survey time frame. Physicians mentioned sunscreen during
12.83 million patient visits, which amounts to just 0.07% of all visits,
although mention of sunscreen was reported for 0.9% of patients visits in which
a patient was diagnosed with skin disease. Dermatologists fared a little
better, mentioning sunscreen during 1.6% of dermatology visits while being
responsible for 86.4% of all sunscreen mentions in the survey time frame. The
researchers also found that sunscreen was recommended most frequently to
patients aged 80 or older and to white patients, while children were the least
likely to receive this recommendation.
Researchers concluded
that sunscreen mentions during patient visits are still too low, even with
patients who have a history of skin disease. They also suggested that high
incidence and morbidity of skin cancer can be greatly reduced if patients
exercise sun-protective behaviors, but it is up to physicians and
dermatologists to make sure patients are properly educated on these behaviors.
Find out more about the
study’s findings here: http://dermatologytimes.modernmedicine.com/dermatology-times/news/sunscreen-recommendation-rates-low?contextCategoryId=116
Thank you for reading,
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