College Students’ Attitudes and Behaviors Related to Sun Safety and Appearance in Relation to Health Information-Seeking Behavior and Social Media Use: Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States. Rates of melanoma, a malignant form of skin cancer, are on the rise and are high among people under 30 years of age. Objective: This study aims to explore factors related to sun protection and tanning behavior and examine the influence of social media use and health information-seeking behaviors (HISB) on sun protection actions among a group of college students. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, students (N=258) at a large public university completed a survey that included questions on sun safety and tanning attitudes and behaviors, as well as HISB. A sun protection behavior score was created on the basis of behaviors related to seeking shade, using sunscreen, tanning booth and bed use, and the number of lifetime blistering sunburns. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess associations between high and low sun protection behavior and sun safety and tanning attitudes and HISB. Results: The majority of participants were females (164/258, 63.8%), 31.0% (80/258) were white, and the mean age was 20.3 (SD 4.1) years. Females (odds ratio [OR] 0.42, 95% CI 0.22-0.81) and believers that suntan improves appearance (OR 0.25, 95% CI 0.10-0.66) were less likely to have “high” sun protection behaviors. Conclusions: The cultural belief that having a suntan improves appearance, especially among female college students, results in low sun protection behaviors. Interventions can be developed to improve skin cancer-related HISB among college students with the aim of developing better cognizance of skin cancer and sun protection behaviors.