Almost one-third of white female high school students and one-quarter of white women aged 18-34 years used indoor tanning devices over a 12-month period, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Data from the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed that 29.3% of the 2,527 non-Hispanic white female high school respondents reported using a sunlamp, sun bed, or tanning booth in the previous 12 months, and 16.7% reported frequent (at least 10 times in the previous year) use of tanning devices, said Gery P. Guy Jr., Ph.D., of the CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control and his associates (JAMA Intern. Med. 2013 Aug. 19 [doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.10013]).
Among white women aged 18-34 years, 24.9% had used a tanning device at least once in the previous 12 months and 15.1% had used one at least 10 times, according to data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey. The younger women in that age range were more likely to use tanning devices; 31.8% of women aged 18-21 years reported any use and 21.3% reported frequent use, compared with 17.4% and 10.7%, respectively, in women aged 30-34 years, the investigators wrote.
