New Zealand and Australia have the highest rates of melanoma in the world. Three risk factors for developing melanoma include skin type, skin colour, and family history of skin cancer. Participants in the 2013 Sun Exposure Survey were asked about their outdoor activities over the weekend prior to the interview date, including whether or not they had been sunburnt.
Methodology
Participants in the 2013 SES were asked about their outdoor activities over the weekend prior to the interview date, including whether or not they had been sunburnt. Analyses were restricted to those respondents who were outdoors for at least 15 minutes between 10am and 4pm over the weekend. Responses were examined by the following risk factors in separate univariate analyses to determine any statistically significant differences in sunburn incidence by the sub-groups:
- Age (13 to 17 years; 18 to 24 years; 25 to 34 years; 35 to 44 years; 45 to 54 years)
- Gender (Male; Female)
- Skin colour (Very fair; Fair; Medium; Olive; Dark/very dark/black)
- Skin type (Sunburn sensitivity: High; Moderate; Not sensitive)
- Known family history of skin cancer.
Skin type was adapted from the Fitzpatrick Scale (Fitzpatrick, 1988; Makin et al., 2013) using the following question: "Suppose your untanned skin was exposed to strong sunshine at the beginning of summer using no sun protection at all. If you stayed in the sun for 30 minutes, would your untanned skin...?" Three groups (high, moderate, or not sensitive to sunburn) comprised skin type according to the respective response options: "Just burn and not tan afterwards"; "Burn first, then tan afterwards"; "Not burn at all, just tan".
Key Results
Cross-sectional data from the SES revealed the following findings related to the 2013 summer:
- Of the New Zealanders who were outside for at least 15 minutes from 10am until 4pm during the previous summer weekend, 19.0% reported having been sunburnt.
- Respondents whose skin is moderately sensitive to the sun had a higher rate of sunburn (23.1%) compared to those with non-sensitive skin (11.7%).
- There were no differences in reported sunburn among the different groups of respondents by gender, age, skin colour, or known family history of skin cancer.
- It will be important to conduct additional analyses on available trend data from 1994 to investigate any patterns over time and to incorporate other factors into the analysis, such as sun exposure and sun protection behaviours.