Wrinkles Scarier than Cancer? Ask Indoor Tanners

The dangers of indoor tanning have been in the limelight in the past few months, as additional taxation of indoor tanning treatments approaches. But many young people aren't responding to messages of the medical dangers of indoor tanning--you know, how it can cause skin cancer and stuff. Instead, as shown in a study published Monday in Archives of Dermatology, young women responded much more to messages threatening wrinkles and premature aging rather than those warning of skin cancer. In a study of 430 young women who indoor tan, half were offered a booklet explaining radiation's effects on the skin, i.e. wrinkles. The results of the study concluded that "... Appearance-focused interventions, when grounded in strong theoretical models that have been empirically verified, can have robust, clinically significant effects on UV risk behaviors even in subpopulations with strong nonappearance tanning motives." You can find the abstract of the study by clicking here. To learn more about the risks of indoor tanning, contact a local skin care specialist.