Given the high prevalence of indoor tanning use that was discovered in this study, physicians will once again be called on to counsel patients against a risky behavior, said Dr. Robert P. Dellavalle.
But clinicians – dermatologists no less than primary-care physicians – are already under distinct time pressure and may not have the luxury of devoting several minutes to routine advice against the use of tanning beds. "Primary care clinicians should not reduce the time that they spend counseling teens on seat belt and bicycle helmet use or on tobacco avoidance and cessation [in order] to spend more time on sun safety and tanning bed avoidance," he wrote.
Besides, the efficacy of such advice is questionable. The most recent U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines "found little evidence to determine the effects of counseling on the sun protection behaviors of adults, including avoiding sunlamps and tanning beds, and did not recommend any routine counseling by primary care clinicians to prevent skin cancer," Dr. Dellavalle noted.
"This guideline recommendation is unlikely to change soon as no major (and expensive) randomized controlled trial on skin cancer counseling efficacy appears on the horizon," he wrote.
Dr. Dellavalle is in the department of dermatology at the University of Colorado at Denver, and the Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora. He reported no financial disclosures. These comments were adapted from his editorial accompanying Dr. Choi’s report (Arch. Dermatol. 2010;146:1361-2).
