The health and economic implications of the use of tanning devices

Abstract

ObjectivesWe estimated the numbers of cases of health care conditions that are causally associated with exposure to tanning devices in the United States, and calculated the costs of medical care for treating these cases. MethodsThe principal unit of analysis for this study is the number of individuals living in the United States who sought treatment for basal cell carcinomas (BCC), squamous cell carcinomas (SCC), or melanomas. To estimate the percentage of these cases that are attributable to exposure to tanning devices, we calculated the Population Attributable Risk (PAR) for each disease. We calculated annual medical costs on a per-case basis as well as indirect productivity costs, using Years of Potential Life Lost. ResultsThere were nearly 9000 incident cases of melanoma, and more than 86,600 cases of SCC and 168,000 cases of BCC, attributable to exposure to tanning devices in the U.S. in 2015. The cost of direct medical care for these cases is $343.1 million annually, and they will lead to a total economic loss of $127.3 billion over the lifetime of the individuals affected. ConclusionsThe use of tanning devices is a significant contributor to illness and premature mortality in the U.S., and also represents a major economic burden in terms of the costs of medical care and lost productivity.