Abstract
Few surveillance tools exist for monitoring tanning bed injuries. Twitter data were examined to identify and describe reports of tanning bed-caused burns. Tweets sent in 2013 containing keywords for tanning bed use and burning were content analyzed to determine whether a burn caused by a tanning bed was described, and additional data on tanning behavior and burn characteristics were extracted. After content assessment, 15,178 (64 %) tweets were found to describe a tanning bed-caused burn. Sites most reportedly burnt were buttocks (n = 3117), face/head (n = 1020), and chest/breast (n = 546). Alarmingly, 200 burns to the eyes/eyelids were mentioned. A total of 456 tweets described burning >1 time from a tanning bed. A total of 211 tweets mentioned falling asleep inside the tanning bed. In 2013, over 15,000 tweets reported tanning bed-caused burns. Twitter data provides unique insight into tanning behaviors and injuries not captured through traditional public health surveillance.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Geller AC, Balk SJ, Fisher DE. Stemming the tanning bed epidemic: time for action. J Natl Compr Cancer Netw. 2012; 10(10): 1311-1314.
Guy GP, Berkowitz Z, Watson M, Holman DM, Richardson LC. Indoor tanning among young non-Hispanic white females. JAMA Intern Med. 2013; 173(20): 1920-1922.
Wehner MR, Chren M-M, Nameth D, et al. International prevalence of indoor tanning: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Dermatol. 2014; 150(4): 390-400.
Guy GP, Jr., Berkowitz Z, Tai E, Holman DM, Everett Jones S, Richardson LC. Indoor tanning among high school students in the United States, 2009 and 2011. JAMA Dermatol. 2014;150(5):501-11.
Wu X, Groves FD, McLaughlin CC, Jemal A, Martin J, Chen VW. Cancer incidence patterns among adolescents and young adults in the United States. Cancer Causes Control. 2005; 16(3): 309-320.
Purdue MP, Freeman LB, Anderson WF, Tucker MA. Recent trends in incidence of cutaneous melanoma among US Caucasian young adults. J Investig Dermatol. 2008; 128(12): 2905.
Pfahlberg A, Kölmel KF, Group GFTFS. Timing of excessive ultraviolet radiation and melanoma: epidemiology does not support the existence of a critical period of high susceptibility to solar ultraviolet radiation‐induced melanoma. Br J Dermatol. 2001; 144(3): 471-475.
Guy GP, Watson M, Haileyesus T, Annest JL. Indoor tanning–related injuries treated in a national sample of US Hospital Emergency Departments. JAMA Intern Med. 2014.
Stapleton JL, Hillhouse J, Turrisi R, et al. Erythema and ultraviolet indoor tanning: findings from a diary study. Transl Behav Med. 2013; 3(1): 10-16.
Paul MJ, Dredze M. You are what you Tweet: analyzing Twitter for public health. Paper presented at: ICWSM2011.
Aslam AA, Tsou M-H, Spitzberg BH, et al. The reliability of tweets as a supplementary method of seasonal influenza surveillance. J Med Intern Res. 2014;16(11).
Chew C, Eysenbach G. Pandemics in the age of Twitter: content analysis of Tweets during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak. PLoS One. 2010; 5(11), e14118.
Nagel AC, Tsou M-H, Spitzberg BH, et al. The complex relationship of realspace events and messages in cyberspace: case study of influenza and pertussis using tweets. J Med Intern Res. 2013;15(10).
Kuehn BM. Agencies use social media to track foodborne illness. JAMA. 2014; 312(2): 117-118.
Twitter. Company. https://about.twitter.com/company. Accessed June 18, 2015.
Vickey TA, Ginis KM, Dabrowski M. Twitter classification model: the ABC of two million fitness tweets. Transl Behav Med. 2013; 3(3): 304-311.
Wehner MR, Chren MM, Shive ML, et al. Twitter: an opportunity for public health campaigns. Lancet. 2014; 384(9938): 131-132.
Hossler EW, Conroy MP. YouTube as a source of information on tanning bed use. Arch Dermatol. 2008; 144(10): 1395-1396.
Lucas RM. An epidemiological perspective of ultraviolet exposure—public health concerns. Eye Contact Lens. 2011; 37(4): 168-175.
US Department of Health and Human Services. The surgeon general’s call to action to prevent skin cancer. 2014.
Performance standards for light-emitting products. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidance/GuidanceDocuments/UCM272561.pdf. Accessed July 6, 2015.
Fishbaugh B. Your tanners aren’t wearing eye protection! 2015; http://istmagazine.com/your-tanners-arent-wearing-eye-protection/-sthash.K9vEDPRN.dpbs. Accessed June 18, 2015.
K P. Thousands of skin, eye burns linked to indoor tanning. USA Today. December 15, 2014.
Køster B, Thorgaard C, Philip A, Clemmensen I. Sunbed use and campaign initiatives in the Danish population, 2007–2009: a cross‐sectional study. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2011; 25(11): 1351-1355.
Duggan M EN, Lampe C, Lenhart A, Madden M. Demographics of key social networking platforms. 2015; http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms-2/. Accessed June 18, 2015.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Funding
This study was funded by the Melanoma Foundation of New England.
Conflict of interest
None of the authors has any conflicts of interest to disclose.
Ethics approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Additional information
Implications
Research: Questions assessing tanning bed-caused burning should be added to population-based surveys to help estimate the prevalence of tanning bed-caused injury.
Practice: Health campaigns are needed to educate the public on the risk of tanning bed-caused burns.
Policy: Policies are needed to reduce the harms caused by tanning bed use.
About this article
Cite this article
Seidenberg, A.B., Pagoto, S.L., Vickey, T.A. et al. Tanning bed burns reported on Twitter: over 15,000 in 2013. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 6, 271–276 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-016-0388-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-016-0388-6