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Recall of indoor tanning salon warnings and safety guidelines among a national sample of tanners

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Translational Behavioral Medicine

An Erratum to this article was published on 27 May 2016

Abstract

Indoor tanning (IT) is a known carcinogen, and regulation has increased across the USA. However, there is minimal point-of-sale regulation for adult users. The purpose of the present study is to explore whether IT users recall being provided with warnings or safety guidelines at tanning salons. A national sample of 273 young adult, female IT users (mean age = 22.26, SD = 2.38) was surveyed regarding the frequency that they recalled being provided with six different warnings and safety guidelines when at tanning salons. Between 65 and 90.1 % of participants reported recalling the various warnings and guidelines. Having very fair skin was reported by 16.8 % of participants, and these high-risk individuals were less likely to recall having read and signed a consent form than other IT users (p = .002). The current level of regulation is insufficient to provide IT users with consistent warnings and safety guidelines at tanning salons.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by grants from the National Cancer Institute to Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (P30 CA072720) and from the National Cancer Institute to Jerod Stapleton (R03 CA165801 and K07 CA175115).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 195 Little Albany Street, 5th floor, Room 5549.20, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903-2681, USA

    Ashley K. Day PhD, Elliot J. Coups PhD, Sharon L. Manne PhD & Jerod L. Stapleton PhD

  2. School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Ashley K. Day PhD

  3. Department of Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Elliot J. Coups PhD, Sharon L. Manne PhD & Jerod L. Stapleton PhD

  4. Department of Health Education and Behavioral Science, Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Elliot J. Coups PhD, Sharon L. Manne PhD & Jerod L. Stapleton PhD

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  1. Ashley K. Day PhD
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  2. Elliot J. Coups PhD
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  4. Jerod L. Stapleton PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ashley K. Day PhD.

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None of the authors has any conflicts of interest to declare.

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Implications

Practice: Behavioral medicine providers need to address the importance of educating indoor tanning users with information about the risks of tanning, particularly among users with very fair skin.

Policy: Policy makers should be aware that warnings and safety messages at the point of sale in tanning salons may be inconsistent and that individuals with very fair skin continue to engage in indoor tanning.

Research: Future research should explore salon owners’ knowledge of and/or affiliation with trade organizations and salon staff’s training experiences with regard to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and industry safety guidelines. Future research should determine optimum intervals for the frequency of these warnings or safety guidelines.

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13142-016-0413-9.

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Day, A.K., Coups, E.J., Manne, S.L. et al. Recall of indoor tanning salon warnings and safety guidelines among a national sample of tanners. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 6, 622–627 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-016-0392-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-016-0392-x

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